80 



UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



into the meaty fruit, it pushes up out of this 

 green cup and leaves it behind as a shriveled 

 border about the point where the peach is 

 fastened to the branch. For this reason the 

 peach has no star opposite the stem, as the 

 apple has, but ends instead in a little point 

 that is almost lost in the general plumpness 

 of the fruit. For this reason too it lacks the 

 papery case we call a core in the apple. 



WHERE THE APPLE GETS ITS CORE 



The apple, coining late in the season, 

 finds leaves already before it. So it is com- 

 pelled to put stems to the flowers, though 

 even these are not so long as those of the 

 cherry. But the crowning peculiarity of 

 the apple-blossom is the rounded green 

 knob on the under side of the flower. Look- 

 ing at this bloom from the front, one cannot 

 see so deeply into it as he did into the peach- 

 blossom. The portion of the blossom 

 which was the cup in the peach closes in 

 over the knob and grows fast to it. Hence, 

 when the fruit ripens, not only are the seeds 

 covered with the pulp, as in the case of the 



