THE APPLE BLOSSOM 71 
and five little greenish threads like hairs in the midst of them. 
The hairs with the yellow tops are the stamens, and the greenish 
yellow ones are the pistils. The yellow balls contain a powder 
called pollen, which the wind blows on to the greenish threads. 
The threads carry the contents of the powder down inside the 
small green ball at the base of the petals, and this powder makes 
the seeds ripen. If you find ten seeds in the apple you have just 
cut, you will know that each of them had some of this powder to 
make it grow and turn brown. If you find any seeds as large as 
pinheads, you will know these had none of the powder, or pollen, 
and so they did not develop. 
When the petals of the apple blossom fall off, they leave be- 
lind the stamens and the pistil, which is the baby apple, and 
the five pomts which you find in the apple. Figure 2 shows you 
what an apple twig looks like when all the petals have fallen 
from its blossoms. The five points make the calyx of the apple 
blossom. 
The stamens and pistil soon begin to dry and turn brown, and 
the points get rather dry too. The baby apple begins to swell. 
It grows larger and larger. At first it looks like No. 1, then like 
2, 3, and then 4, in Fig. 3. You see that the stem is not set into 
a hollow, neither is the blossom end depressed. Here is a problem 
for you to work out. 
Problem 
Why does not the apple remain the same shape, only larger, 
when it is ripe? Why do the stem end and the blossom end sinh: 
im on the ripe apple and not on the very young apple? 
