Pome

Pome, the fruit characteristic of the sub-order Pomaceas in the order Rosacea?. It is inferior and pseudocarpic, the carpels being surrounded by a fleshy external prolongation of the floral receptacle. This may exceptionally contain one carpel only, as in one variety of the hawthorn (q.v.), Cratcegus Oxyacantha (variety monogyna); or two, as in the variety oxyacanthoides; but more often five, as in apple, pear, mountain-ash, medlar, etc. The carpels form the core and may be distinct from one another, though embedded; and may be either stony, as in the medlar or hawthorn, or parchment-like, as in the apple and the pear. The pome is surmounted by the withered calyx, which in the medlar is large, and is not carried so nearly to the apex as usual. In the pear much of the peduncle is fleshy below the carpels. The fleshy part of the pome in this species contains woody particles; that of the hawthorn is of a mealy consistence.