132 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



The exterior of the calyx & its sections, except for the bottom of the cup, is dark red. The 

 inside of the calyx is light green & the insides of its sections are part green, part red. 2°. 

 five white petals arranged like a rose, six lignes wide, five lignes high, considerably 

 hollowed or concave, rounded and often puckered at the edges. They're attached by a 

 very small unguis to the inside margins of the calyx between the sections. 3°. from twenty 

 to thirty stamens attached to the inner lining of the cup. Their tips are yellow, & their 

 filaments, three to four lignes long, are white. They're held erect, gathered around the 

 pistil at the center of the flower until the tips have deposited their pollen. 4°. a pistil with 

 a white style capped by a stigma. The style is five to six lignes long and stands on a light 

 green rounded ovary situated at the bottom of the calyx. The apricot tree's flowers 

 blossom between mid-March and the beginning of April. They're identical in all 

 varieties, or differ only a little more or less in size. 



The ovary becomes a fleshy fruit, round or close to it. The fruit is divided 

 lengthwise by a groove. It's covered by a thin, slightly fuzzy skin that adheres very 

 tightly to the flesh. It's attached to the branch by an extremely short stalk. It contains a 

 very woody pit that looks like shagreen and is flattened at the edges and raised on one 

 side into three ridges. The middle one is the sharpest & most prominent. The pit contains 

 a kernel made up of two lobes with the germ at the tip. The size & proportions of the 

 fruit, the color of its skin, the flavor & consistency of its flesh, the taste of its kernel, the 

 time that it ripens, &c. all vary according to the type of apricot tree. 



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