THE CHERRY 143 
the stone lie in the cherry? Could you tell from 
the outside of the cherry under which part of 
it the heavy lines on the stone will lie? 
Information 
If you look at the plate, you will see what the cherry blossoms 
are like and how the young cherry grows. 
The cherry blossom has five white petals and many stamens 
and a pistil in the center. The stamens have a fine yellow pow- 
der which touches the end of the pistil and makes the cherry 
develop. 
After the petals drop off, the stamens are left attached to the 
calyx (or cup), which then becomes very dry. The little cherry 
inside grows and swells and soon bursts this dry skin, which falls 
off, leaving the green cherry at the end of the stem. 
Sometimes the calyx does not fall off, but hangs around the 
stem and makes a fringed collar for the cherry. 
The spot on the end of the cherry shows where the pistil was 
attached which carried the yellow powder to the seed. This was 
the spot, you will remember, that did not bleed when pricked 
with a pin. 
The green cherry does not hang down as the ripe one does, 
but is held up by its stem, so the poimted end of the stone is 
really at the top, and the round spot at the bottom. This you 
can see if you look at the plate. 
Many birds like cherries as well as we do, and the robin is par- 
ticularly fond of them and eats them on the trees as soon as they 
are ripe. 
