318 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
JBDYS 4 ® T JIE5LS ? (GDOTMNS 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
Last month X described the Peach and Cherry, and 
then went on to the more complicated Blackberry, omit¬ 
ting the Apple, which of all fruits you would most like 
to know about. In describing fruits, an examination of 
Fig. 1.—SECTION OF APPLE-BLOSSOM. 
one will often help us to understand how another is made 
up. You will recollect that in the first flower Talk, when 
we began with .he Buttercup, it was shown that all the 
different parts of the flower were placed on or started 
from the end of the flower-stalk, and that the name rt- 
ceptacle was given to that. It was seen last month, in 
the Blackberry, and especially in the Strawberry, that 
Fig. 2.— VERTICAL SECTION OF APPLE. 
the receptacle increased in size after flowering, and by 
the time the fruit was ripe it became, especially in the 
Strawberry, a very important part of that which we eat 
as the fruit. To understand the Apple as a fruit. 
We must start with the Apple-Blossom. 
This, fig. 1, we used in the June Talk, but will bring it 
here to have it at hand to refer to. When you examine 
an apple-blossom, or the bud be¬ 
fore it opens, you will notice 
that it is upon a small stalk and 
that the very end of this stalk is 
enlarged, or swollen, usually in 
the shape of a boy’s top. The 
sepals, petals, and stamens are at¬ 
tached to the upper part of this, 
and you will not be able to find 
anything corresponding in ap¬ 
pearance to the receptacle as you 
have seen it in the other flowers. 
To understand how the botanist 
looks upon the apple-flower, you 
may first examine the related 
Rose; fig. 3gives the unripe tup or fruit of that in section. 
Here the receptacle, instead of being rounded that it 
may have room for the many pistils on its outside, as in 
the Strawberry and others, is here hollowed out, like a 
thimble, and the numerous pistils are 
attached to its inner surface. If the 
Rose had but five pistils in the center, 
and this hollow receptacle were to be 
closed around, and so attached to 
them as to form one mass, you would 
have the same structure as in the ap¬ 
ple-blossom. Outside of all iS the 
calyx, which surrounds and is united Fig.. 4section 
with the receptacle, at its lower part, OF winter- 
but above is seen as five spreading green-berry. 
sepals. When the flowering is over and the petals and 
stamens fall away, there remain the pistils, the recepta¬ 
cle and the calyx to grow and become the ripe fruit. 
Fig. 3.— section 
OF ROSE HIP. 
Great Changes Take Place 
in the form of the Apple. The flesh grows in such a 
manner that the point where the 
stem is attached is soon at the bot¬ 
tom of a deep cavity. At the op¬ 
posite end of the fruit we find the 
sepals, or parts of the calyx, re¬ 
maining in a more or less dry con¬ 
dition, and if you remove these 
carefully you may be able to make 
out the remains of the pistils (styles 
and stigmas), and often there will 
be some withered stamens attached 
there. The ovaries of the pistils— 
for there are usually five—are in *>• mulberry. 
the fruit much changed ; their walls are those tough, 
parchment-like, almost horn-like pieces which inclose 
the seeds, and are called the core. The great mass of the 
fruit of the Apple is the much enlarged calyx ; that part 
of the flesh immediately surrounding the core is the 
juicy receptacle. In figure 2 the parts of the Apple are 
shown. At A is the stem, at the bottom of the fruit. 
Many regard this part of an Apple as the top, but you 
will find at the beginning, when the petals fall, that the 
end to which they are attached is uppermost, and it is 
only when the fruit gets heavy and bends the stem that 
the end to which that is attached appears to be the top. 
The shrivelled remains of the sepals are at B. The great 
bulk of the flesh of the Apple, C, is the enlargea calyx. 
One of the ripened ovaries with a seed is at D. around 
which is the receptacle. The Apple you see is another il¬ 
lustration of the fact that it is not always the ripened pis¬ 
til that we esteem as the fruit. No doubt all of you who 
live near where they grow are fond of hunting Cbecker- 
berries, or Wintergreen-berries. as they are often called. 
When you come across these bright scarlet fruits, stop 
and examine before you eat them, and see what it is that 
makes the bulk of the berry. Fig. 4 shows one cut 
open, and you see the fleshy part is the enlarged calyx. 
The Blackberry and Mulberry 
are much alike in general appearance. The former, as 
we saw last month, consists of 
many little fruits, but all from 
one flower. The Mulberry (fig. 
5). on theother hand, isacollec- 
tion of small fruits, each of 
which began with a minute 
flower of its own. The flowers 
of the Mulberry are small and 
crowded together on a slender 
stem. There are two kinds of 
flowers, staminate and pistil¬ 
late, usually on the same tree ; 
those which become fruit con¬ 
sist of a pistil and a fleshy 
calyx. In ripening, the calyx 
of the Mulberry flow'ers be¬ 
comes the juicy and eatable 
part. A Pine Apple is mnch 
like an enlarged Mulberry. 
Here the parts of many flowers 
are crowded together and are united in a fleshy mass. 
Still if you carefully examine the “ squares ” or di¬ 
visions on the outside, you can see the structure. 
Still more puzzling is the Fig—especially in its dry 
state in which it is imported. Many suppose that the 
but this is a mistake. It has a great 
many flowers, but they are very 
small and are out of sight. If you 
can get a chance to examine an 
unripe Fig, you can see that it is, 
as in fig. 6, a hollow stem, or recep¬ 
tacle, on the inside of which are 
„ great numbers of minute flowers. 
‘ FIG ’ Someare staminate and others pis- 
l wers. t j|] ate . the en i ar g e( i flowers are 
shown in fig. 7. When the Fig ripens, the parts of these 
little flowers and the receptacle upon which they grow 
become juicy and eatable. 
Fig. 6 .— section of 
a fig. 
Fig has no flowers 
IN, 
will 
About Hail and Mail-Storms. 
A young friend in New Jersey, who has asked many 
useful questions, has given me no more difficult task 
than to tell him “all about hail and hail-storms.’’ In 
his letter he says that he knows that “ hail-storms come 
in summer, and are very destructive,” and he asks me 
to tell him about them. He could not have asked a more 
puzzling question, and in the above statement that hail¬ 
storms come in summer, and are very destructive, he 
has stated nearly all that is really known. Water, when 
it descends as rain, or as snow, is quite well understood, 
but its descent in the form of hail is so unncertain. that 
little is known about it. Hail generally falls in summer, 
in the form of drops of ice of varying size. Ordinarily, 
the “hail-stones,” as they are commonly called, are not 
larger than a pea, but there is occasionally a storm in 
which the hail-stones are much larger. It is recorded 
that, in 1813, a storm occurred near Lyons, in France, in 
which the stones were of the size of lemons, and killed 
both men and cattle. Tnere was a notable storm in 
1847, in Georgia, during which there fell stones ten 
inches in circumference, and other cases are recorded in 
which even larger stones have fallen. Hail-stones, when 
large, are more or less pear-shaped, as in fig. 1, or onion- 
shaped, as in fig. 2. These large stones are not generally 
alike all through, but are transparent in parts, and often 
show opaque layers, as if made in part of frozen snow. 
In a general way, it may be said that their formation is 
supposed to be due to the meeting of currents of air of 
different temperatures, and, of course, containing dif¬ 
ferent degrees of moisture. Figures 3 and 4 show some 
very regular and unusual hail-stones. But, as already 
said, there is nothing relating to atmospheric disturb¬ 
ances and storms, about which so little is known, as about 
hail and hail-storms. I do know one thing about them, 
though. Several years ago I visited a gentleman in 
Western New York, and found that all the windows 
different forms of hail-stones. 
upon the sides of his new house had been destroyed, 
and that all the glass in his green-houses had been de¬ 
molished; besides which, the leaves from his fruit trees 
were stripped by the hail. I am utterly unable to tell 
my young friend any more about hail, as its coming does 
not appear to be subject to any known laws. It may be 
that at some time we shall know more about it than we 
now do, but at present it is impossible to predict its 
coming, or to take measures against it. The Doctor. 
rusty pans. 
A Vegeliiklc 9>isIi-Clofli. 
Dish-cloths, as any house-wife will agree, are very im¬ 
portant in the kitchen, but few have ever thought of plant¬ 
ing the seed, and raising them in 
theirgarden. Yet kind old Mother 
Nature, who believes in law and 
order, has provided a dish-cloth 
plant, on purpose to teach her chil¬ 
dren the beauty of cleanliness, and 
that they may have no excuse for 
unwashed dishes, or 
How many, I won¬ 
der. of our litttle read¬ 
ers, the young maid¬ 
ens who are learning 
to be good housekeep¬ 
ers, have seen and 
used this curious na¬ 
tural product, to wash 
up their dainty cups 
and saucers, or form 
into pretty ornamen ts, 
as unique presents for 
their friends. Perhaps 
some of those, whose 
homes are in the 
“ Sunny South,” may 
have done so, for the 
Papanjay, or Sponge 
Cucumber, as it is 
called, is a native of 
the East Indies, and 
flourishes best in 
warm climates, al¬ 
though by starting it 
under glass, it may be 
raised quite far North. 
Its botanical name is 
Cucumis acutangulus , 
and the vine itself is 
a most rampant grow¬ 
er, spreading out its 
squash-like leaves in 
all directions. The 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 1. 
fruit it bears, is a long, narrow gourd, sometimes nearly 
two feet in length, within the outer shell of which, and 
inclosing the seeds, is found the sponge-like fibre used for- 
dish-cloths, and which answers the purpose most admir¬ 
ably, better, some think, than anything prepared by art. 
One that was sent us last winter, might at first have 
