50 THE PEAR 
Knock it on your desk. Do you think it sounds 
like the knock of a hard or of a rather soft thing? 
6. With a pin pick off a little piece of the skin. 
Notice the white pulp underneath; the thinness 
of the skin. 
Cross Section 
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7. Cut a cross section through the widest part of the 
pear. [Alternate pupils do this.] Notice the 
core and its five divisions. In the pear some of 
these are apt to be imperfect. 
Notice the seeds in the divisions of the core. Count 
these. There should be ten, but often the seeds 
do not ripen, and then they are no larger than 
pinheads, and are bard to find. Are there any 
of these undeveloped seeds in your pear? 
8. Find the ving of dots around the core. How many 
distinct dots are there? 
9. Notice that the core is in the center of the pear, 
embedded in white pulp, with a narrow rim of 
skin outside. 
10. Look closely at the pulp. Do you see near the core 
and scattered throughout a quantity of small dots? 
With the knife cut a very thin slice of the pear 
about the size and thickness of the finger nail. 
