SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 



213 



LOQUAT 



A small, pear-shaped fruit, scarcely as large as 

 a plum, with yellow skin and a pleasantly acid 

 taste, grows wild in China and Japan, and is called 

 the loquat. Introduced into California, it is com- 

 mon in the fruit stalls in Los Angeles. It thrives 

 in southern Australia, and is one of the common 

 market fruits in Sydney and other towns. 



STONE FRUITS 



Plums and cherries, peaches and apricots are 

 stone fruits. The pulpy flesh encloses the single 

 seed, which has a hard shell, like a nut. The 

 trees have a resinous sap that flows out to heal 

 wounds in the bark. The drug, hydrocyanic acid, 

 gives the characteristic bitter taste to the sap and 

 the pits of the fruit. It is poisonous, but does not 

 affect the flesh. Stone fruits have been improved 

 by cultivation until they represent one of the im- 

 portant fruit groups of the Temperate Zones. 



PLUMS 



The European plums have come from ancestors 

 that grow wild in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. 

 The woolly-twigged varieties we see in New 

 England gardens, and in better condition on the 



