CHAPTER XV. 



TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING FRUITS. 



It is only by a uniform and definite use of terms that de- 

 scriptions can be made intelligible to the reader. Hence a 

 full explanation of these terms becomes a matter of impor- 

 tance. Distinctive characters should be permanent, and not 

 liable to variation with a change of locality, soil, season, or 

 climate; or, if variable, the nature of such variation should 

 be distinctly pointed out. To assist the cultivator the more 

 fully to understand written descriptions, the devotion of a few 

 pages to a clear explanation of the terms used in this work 

 may prove useful. 



I. Growth of the Tree, Shoots, and Leaves. 



The form of growth often affords a good distinctive char- 

 acter of varieties, not liable to great variation. Young trees, 

 only a few years old, usually exhibit peculiarities of growth 

 more conspicuously than old trees of irregular spreading 

 branches. Hence, in all cases where this character is men- 

 tioned, it refers to young trees not more than three or four 

 years from the bud or graft, unless otherwise expressed. 



I. Shoots are erect, when they rise nearly perpendicularly 

 from the main trunk or stem, as in the Early Strawberry 

 apple and Bartlett pear (Fig. 305). 



Diverging, when they deviate from the perpendicular at an 

 angie of about forty-five degrees, considerable variation being 

 found in the same tree ; as in the Domine and Ribston Pippin 

 (Fig. 306). 



Spreading, when they more nearly approach a. horizontal 

 direction, as in most trees of the Rhode Island Greening (Fig. 

 307). 



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