THE FRUIT. 



35 



return anything to the tree, but appropriates all to its own 

 use ; and this is the reason, as we have before remarked, 

 that trees having borne a heavy crop of fruit one season 

 are unfruitful the next — this is the case only with fruits, 

 as the apple and pear, that require nearly the whole sea- 

 son to mature them. Cherries, and other fruits that 

 mature in a shorter period, and that draw more lightly on 

 the juices of the tree, do not produce this exhaustion, and 

 consequently bear year after year uninterruptedly. 



2d. Classification. — In some fruits, as the apple for in- 

 stance, the fruit is formed helow or at the base of the 

 calyx, the segments of which are still visible in the 

 mature fruit ; and often serves to some extent by its size 

 and other peculiarities, as being spread out, or closed to- 

 gether in a point, to identify varieties. In other species, 

 as the plum and cherry, the fruit is formed within the 

 calyx, or on the top of it. Fruits of the former character 

 forming below the calyx and including it in their struc- 

 ture are classed as inferior — the wp^le^ jpea/p^ quince^ 

 gooseberry^ and mrra/rit are all inferior, having the calyx 

 adhering. 



Those -formed within the calyx, having the pistil alone 

 connected with the ovary, are called sioperior ; such are the 

 peachy jplum^ ajpricot^ nectarine^ cherry^ rasjpberry^ straw- 

 herry^ and grape. 



The more natural, popular, and useful classification of 

 fruits, is that by which they are divided into 

 Pomes or Kernel Fruits.^ as the apple^ jpear^ quince.^ med- 

 lar., etc. In speaking of these we call the pericarp 

 the^^^A, and the dry, bony seed capsules the core. 

 Drupes or Stone Fruits. — ^Those having a soft, pulpy 

 pericarp, and the seed enclosed in a shell like a nut, 

 as the peacJi^ plum., apricot., cTierry., etc. The peri- 

 od of these is called the flesli.^ and the seed, the pit 

 or stone ' 



