22 THE APPLE-TREE 



in diameter either way, sturdy and unblemished ; another 

 shows deformity due to insect puncture; the third re- 

 mains small and presently will drop. A scar in the leaf- 

 axil marks the failure of another flower. Four blossoms 

 were in this cluster, but only one fruit now has a chance 

 to come to uninjured maturity, and two have already 

 failed. The big apple has now lost most of its fuzziness 

 and begins to assume a delicate "bloom" on its surface; 

 the smallest one — the one that soon will perish — still 

 holds some of its fuzz. A section of this smallest fruit 

 discloses empty cells; apparently it was not fertilized. 



Another two weeks have passed. It is June 14th. 

 From the same tree is taken the photograph. Fig. 9. 

 Here is a big apple, Ij^ inch in diameter; and there is a 

 dead shrivelled fruit that dropped when I touched it. Of 

 the several flowers in the cluster, all have failed but one. 

 This one fruit has now passed the danger of the blossom- 

 end infection by the codlin-moth and it has no blemishes. 

 The many whitish spots characteristic of the variety are 

 now conspicuous all over the surface. The ribs begin to 

 show. There is a faint blush on the upper side. The 

 fuzz has disappeared and the bloom is becoming evident. 

 The calyx is tightly closed, although the tips of the sepals 

 are spread widely. The stem is stout. The weight of 

 the apple inclines it nearly to the horizontal. Yet this 

 good apple is not symmetrical; one side is larger than 

 the other. I cut it crosswise and find two cells on the 

 larger side developing two strong seeds each, whilst 

 those on the smaller side have a single seed each and 

 one of these seeds is small and perhaps would not have 

 matured. The fleshy part of the apple, outside the core, 

 now occupies about as much of the diameter as the core 



