V

DESCRIPTION OF DRUPE FRUITS

THOUGH there are some differences, many of the points of description are the same for drupaceous fruits as for pomaceous fruits, and many of the same descriptive terms are employed. In order to make the whole subject perfectly plain, however, it will be best to go through the formula for the description of drupaceous fruits point by point, and make such explanations as seem necessary.

Form is considered first. Many plums and a few peaches are compressed (that is, flattened sidewise), and this is perhaps the most important matter of difference in form between pome fruits and stone fruits. It will be noticed that many cherries are strongly oblate, and that a few are heart-shaped or cordate. Peaches and plums are often oval or round-oval. Occasionally the term elliptical or ellipsoid seems more distinctive, but rarely so. The simpler term is always to be chosen if it is equally significant (see Fig. 17). Size is to be determined and described ir

the manner already explained in Chapter IV., except that, as there noted, some form of fruit calipers is a practical necessity in measuring soft-fleshed peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries.

The cavity is, in general, less important and characteristic among the stone fruits

Cordate

Elliptical, unequal

FIG. 17. DIFFERENT FORMS OF PLUMS

than among the pome fruits, but it can by no means be disregarded. As in the former case, it is described as to its depth, width, form, and markings.

The stem is of more value in the description of plums and cherries than with other fruits, and should accordingly be mentioned with special care. Many describers habitually give the exact length of the stem; and in

case the size of the fruit is mentioned in absolute inches or millimeters, the length of the stem certainly ought to be recorded in the same units.

The suture is a character peculiar to the drupe fruits. This term applies to the fold or crease running from the stem toward the apex of the fruit. In some cases it is continuous and even from stem to apex; in other cases it runs only the third, one-half, or twothirds the distance, and these details should be fully noted in the description. In many plums there is no suture at all, but there is nearly always a distinct line of darker color marking the place where the suture would naturally be. It is best, with such a variety in hand, to enter in the description the statement "Suture, a line."

The apex of a peach, plum, or cherry may be pointed, rounded, or depressed, and occasionally it has some peculiar marking, as a dot or a distinctly prolonged tip.

In

The dots on plums are of great value in separating varieties. Their number, size, color, and distribution should be noted. peaches and nectarines the dots are very obscure and seldom of any differentiating value.

In cherries they are wholly absent or are not worth considering.

The bloom on stone fruits is nearly always conspicuous and often highly characteristic. Under this head one would describe the "fuzz" on peaches, which may be coarse and heavy, or light, or thin, or scant. Other descriptive terms will occur to any one who has a sample of peaches in hand. On plums the bloom is of entirely a different sort. It is usually best to describe it as thin or heavy, though occasionally it is characteristically waxy. It is the time-honored custom to describe the bloom of plums as to color, calling it white, or purplish, or blue. Such terms, however, are quite misapplied in this connection, for the bloom really has no color at all, or is merely waxygray. Any one can readily satisfy himself on this point by scraping off a quantity of this bloom with a knife blade and examining it by itself. It will then be seen at once that the blue or purplish color attributed to the bloom really belongs to the fruit alone, and that it is the color of the fruit showing through the waxy covering which gives it its chromatic look.

The skin may be thick or thin, tender,