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AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
There are usually a few remarks regarding the fruit which will 
suggest themselves, and which have not been provided for in the general 
description. These should be noted down, following which the characteris- 
tics of growth and productiveness should be fully described. Under this 
head will be included any peculiarities of growth or foliage, resistance to 
cold and disease, and those most important of points, precocity and regular- 
ity of bearing, as well as the average size of the crop. 
The importance of accurate illustrations to accompany the description 
of each variety cannot be overestimated. If photographic apparatus is not 
available, careful drawings will suffice. One drawing should show the 
general outline of the fruit, another a longitudinal section with the seed in 
place, and a third the seed alone, viewed longitudinally. 
Photographs are by far the most satisfactory illustrations. With a 
camera of fairly good size a composite photograph may be taken, showing the 
fruit in several positions and including every detail. The external appearance 
should be shown by longitudinal and basal views, though in the case of a 
flat, compressed variety a view of the ventral surface may be more satisfac- 
tory than a basal one. A seed should be included, or better, two of them, 
washed free of all pulp but with the fibers left intact, and one viewed edge- 
wise, so as to show the thickness, the other showing its length and breadth. 
A scale or tape line, marked in inches or centimeters, should always be 
placed in one side of the photograph to show the comparative size. 
Classification. 
An accurate and systematic classification of varieties is at present one 
of the greatest desiderata in connection with mango culture. There seems 
to be ample basis for a classification by natural characteristics, in which, 
could all named varieties be included, their relationships would be vividly 
brought out, and the synonomy established of many considered distinct. 
The principal obstacle confronting such a work is the widespread dis- 
tribution of the mango, making it impossible to gather together all varieties 
for study and comparison. There is no reason, however, why a classificatory 
system could not be formed which could be applied by each pomologist to the 
varieties of his particular region, when a collaboration of the various in- 
vestigators would bring together the fragments and produce the desired 
result. At present our knowledge of the mango is so elementary that no 
satisfactory system of classification can be drawn up, the subject requiring 
much more study and investigation than have so far been given it. 
Recent investigations seem to indicate that all mangos can be divided 
into two classes, monoembryonic and polyembryonic, which in a classifica- 
tion might form the first great division. The Indian mangos as a rule appear 
to be monoembryonic, while those in the Philippine Islands, as well as some 
now grown in Florida, Mexico, and the West Indies, are polyembryonic. 
The polyembryonic varieties have the characteristic of reproducing them- 
selves fairly true to type when grown from seed, by some authorities be- 
lieved to be due to the fact that the embryos are adventitious and not 
formed from the germ cells in the ovary, i. e., they are not the product of 
the fertilization of the ovule, as is the single plant produced from the seed 
of the monoembryonic type, whose progeny is variable. 
