DESCRIPTION. 31 



many varieties are told at once and with certainty by the color 

 of their shoots, yet color terms should be given relatively, as 

 the color varies more or less in the same variety with age, soil, 

 climate and season. 



The shoots of many varieties of apples, pears and plums, the 

 latter in particular are distinguished by varying degrees of 

 piabescence. In some cases the down is barely discernible and 

 in others is almost prickly because of its coarseness. Nearly all 

 shoots are pubescent at first but with many varieties the down 

 tends to disappear with age. 



Buds. — A study of the chapter on classification will show 

 that scarcely any two species of our fruits bear their leaf and 

 fruit buds in the same way and that the manner of bearing 

 brads' is one of the chief characters in dijBEerentiating species. 

 Fbr some reason pomologists have used buds but little in charac- 

 terizing varieties, though the size, form, prominence and degree 

 of pubescence vary most strikingly in different varieties of the 

 sasme species and peculiarities of the bud often serve to identify 

 a variety. 



ThuSj buds may be large as in the Bartlett pear or small as 

 in the Talman Sweet apple ; they may be loose or compact; they 

 may be long and pointed or shorty full and plump; they may be 

 cmnpressed to the shoot or stand erect from it; some are 

 shouldered making prominent prbjections on the shoot. Often 

 they yaTy in color, as those of the Seckel pear are drab and 

 those of the Bartlett are reddish. Buds of some varieties are 

 pubes'eent and of others smooth. 



The Leaves. — The shape, size, texture, color, the absence or 

 presence of glands, and the divisions of the edges of leaves are 

 all of considerable importance in the description of varieties. 



