12 SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY. 



environment, should be considered, and with all characters some 

 allowance must be made for such variations. 



Ettles and Tebms aee not Arbiteaby. — The above sug- 

 gestions regarding the describing of fruits must not be con- 

 strued into arbitrary rules. The qualities and parts considered 

 in a description are so interwoven and so variously distributed 

 with the different fruits that rules cannot be followed to the 

 letter. The terms used to describe fruits are not more absolute 

 than the rules, more important qualities being that they should 

 be within the comprehension of all and as simple, accurate, uni- 

 form and scientific as the plan of the work in hand will 

 permit. 



Kinds of Feuits. — For our purposes we need to consider 

 but three kinds of fruit ; the pome, the drupe and the berry. 



A pome is a fleshy fruit composed of a hollowed receptacle 

 into which are sunk the one or more carpels composing the 

 ovary. Examples are: the apple, pear, quince, medlar, etc. 



Formerly a pome was supposed to be the thickened walls of 

 an adnate calyx embracing one or more carpels but the first 

 definition is now generally accepted by botanists. 



A drupe is a fruit in which the outer part of the pericarp 

 becomes fleshy while the inner hardens like a nut forming a 

 stone with a kernel. Examples: the apricot, cherry, peach, 

 plum, etc. 



The true drupe consists of a single one-celled, and usually' > 

 one-seeded carpel, but the term is sometimes applied to similar 

 fruits arising from a compound pistil in which there may be 

 several separate kernels. Some small drupes, as the huckle- 

 berry, are classed with berries. A drupel is a small drupe 

 such as the individual parts which together form a blackberry. 



