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fruits. On the tree of which I speak, the two fruits were about equal
in size, making a large, widened, edible apple, but I have known of
other cases in which a diminutive undeveloped fruit is attached to the
side of a normal one.

Perhaps the oddest of them all is the "Bloomless apple." It is said to
have no flowers. In fact, however, the flowers are present but they
lack showy petals and are therefore not conspicuous. The bloomless
apple is a monstrous state, the cause of which is unknown. Now and
then a tree is reported. It was described at least as long ago as
1768, and in 1770 Muenchhausen called it _Pyrus apetala_ (the
petalless pyrus). The flowers have no stamens, and apparently they are
pollinated from any other apples in the vicinity. In 1785, Moench
described it as _Pyrus dioica_ (the dioecious pyrus, sexes separated
on different plants). The ovary is also malformed, having six or seven
and sometimes probably more cells, and bearing ten to fifteen styles.
The resulting fruit has a core character unknown in other apples but
approached in certain apple-like fruits, as the medlar. The fruit has
a hole or opening from the calyx (which is open) into the core; and
the core is roughly double, one series above the other. The fruit, in
such specimens as I have seen or read about, has no horticultural
merit; but it is a curiosity of great botanical interest. It appears
now and then in widely separated places, the trees probably having
originated as chance seedlings. The fruits from the different
originations are not always the same in size and form, but the flowers
apparently all have the same malformed character.

The apple is preeminently the home fruit. It is not transitory. It
spans every season. In an indifferent cellar I keep apples till apples
come again. The apple stands up, keeps well on the table. Children may
handle it. In color and form it satisfies any taste. Its rondure is
perfect. The cavity is deep, graceful and well moulded, holding the
good stem securely. The basin is a natural summit and termination of
the curvatures, bringing all the lines together, finishing them in
the ornaments of the remaining calyx. The fruit adapts itself to the
hand. The fingers close pleasantly over it, fitting its figure. It has
a solid feel. The flesh of a good apple is crisp, breaking, melting,
coolly acid or mildly sweet. It has a fracture, as one bites it,
possessed by no other fruit. One likes to feel the snap and b