Unripened Fruits
An orchard owner is distressed because the immense crop of plums has failed to ripen fully in spite of long hours of hot sunshine. He cannot eat his Victorias raw; and he wonders why. Now the final stages of ripening, or at least maturing, are often unexpected. Light and heat quite certainly delay the colouring of tomatoes ; and their redness is the sign of ripeness. It is inferred that towards the end of the process ripening is due to internal, not external influences. Yellowish tomatoes are packed in a box and become a uniform red within twenty- four hours. With regard to plums a possible theory is this. The sun ripens at an early date the part of the fruit that really matters, to wit the kernel. Since there is a continuous correlation of growth between fertilised kernel or pip, it may be that when the seed is ripe the pulp ceases to complete its own ripening process: the inward influence is arrested. It is worth notice that if a blossom of apple or pear is incom- pletely fertilised, the pulp also is incomplete and partial.
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