310 



The Principles of Fruit-growing 



FiQ. 117. Flower ruined 

 by frost, the central or 

 berry part wanting. 



flower is shown in Fig. 116. Inside the five white petals 

 are seen the numerous sprawling stamens, each one bear- 

 ing an enlargement or anther on the 

 end, inside which the pollen is borne. 

 In the center of the flower is the head 

 or cluster of pistils, each of which 

 ripens into one of the little grains 

 that go to make up the blackberry. 

 The frost killed these pistils, so that 

 the center of the flower bore only a 

 small, black, dead column (see Fig. 

 117). Now and then, one or more of 

 these pistils in the head escaped, and 

 developed into a fruit-grain, so that the berry became a 

 nubbin. Fig. 118 shows the dead and aborted fruits at 

 picking time. At the top of the picture are some fruits 

 (n, n,) in which one or two 

 grains or drupes are full 

 grown, when the remainder 

 of the drupelets making the 

 berry failed to develop. 



On the 8th of one May, a 

 temperature of 27° (5° of frost) was 

 recorded by self-registering ther- 

 mometers hung in fruit-trees at 

 Cornell, but no injury resulted. 

 At this time, all the petals had 

 dropped from apricot flowers, but 

 the calyx-riag had not yet fallen 

 from the young fruits; peach flow- 

 ers were in full bloom, but their 

 fertilization had mostly taken 

 place; Japan plum flowers were just 



Fig. 118. 

 Blackberry fruita 

 ruined by frost. 



