214 FIELD NOTES IN SEED TIME. 



her originality, and fashioned and colored, spiced 

 and seasoned to her heart's content. 



Cut with your scalpel all the flesh of this pome 

 from the core, so that the skeleton only remains, 

 and admire the beautiful arrangement of the car- 

 pels ! Each one of them is attached to strings that 

 are tied together so regularly at the stem and calyx, 

 as to form a five-rayed star. Notice the texture 

 of the cell walls, as tough and transparent and im- 

 pervious as mica scales. Nature must have a ten- 

 der care of these germ leaves, so she has not only 

 shut them up closely in cartilaginous boxes, but 

 has packed them away in brown cases until such 

 time as she can find a suitable spot for their 

 vegetation. Take off the leathery wrappings, 

 beginning at the smaller end, and you will see 

 the rudimentary trunk already pushing out from 

 the folds, as if impatient to know its fate. 



Perchance this pure white starchy embryo, which 

 I now hold up on a pin's point, under other circum- 

 stances would have grown to a stately tree, and 

 borne fruit distinguished among all other kinds 

 for its excellent flavor ; and thus perhaps have I 

 robbed the world of an apple whose palatable flesh 

 and praises would have been on the tongues of 

 millions. How readily the white lobes split into 



