ciety, or fruit produced in our own grounds, or sent to us by kind friends during the past season.

Again, we wish it to be fully understood that no estimate can be made of the true character of any fruit, more particularly of the pear, unless the specimens are fair, well grown, of full size and quite ripe or, in other words, in the highest state of perfection the variety will attain to under the most skilful management and favorable season. Some varieties, under the care of a lover of fruits, well cultivated in a congenial soil, may be compared to "refined gold," while the same variety in unskilful hands, the trees neglected, in grass land, or in wet and impoverished soil, may prove as "dross." I would further, and in conclusion on this part of my subject, remark, that first-rate specimens, of the best flavor, cannot be expected to be obtained from trees that are overloaded with fruit. An overcrop is not only injurious to the fruit, but also to the growth and future well-being of the tree. Nature makes great efforts to accomplish her purposes; but if all her energy and resources are called upon to mature fruit, the trees cannot increase in size, and nature thus taxed becomes exhausted-tires-faints and dies under the load.

With the foregoing remarks, which we thought might not be altogether unacceptable to your readers, we proceed to give a list of such new varieties of pears as have, in our opinion, been found worthy to be classed among those deserving of ex

tensive cultivation.

VAN MONS LEON LE CLERC.-One of the best pears we ever ate, and the best pear we tasted the past season.

EYEWOOD. With this variety, after a trial of three years, we were agreeably disappointed. The first year we marked it second-rate. The past season, it proved to be very tender, very melting and juicy, subacid, too much so for persons who like sweet pears, but to the lovers of the Brown Beurré, and Beurré d' Aremberg, this variety will be highly prized.

FONDANTE D'AUTOMNE.-This pear, when well grown and fully ripe, has no superior, and very few equals.

HANNAS and WILBUR.-(The latter native). These varieties may be classed among the best of the season; they were both ripe on the 20th of September.

DIX. (Native.) This variety may be placed among the very best pears in the country. At some future period the Dix will be as well known, and as much esteemed, as the Williams's Bon Chrétien (Bartlett).

DEARBORN'S SEEDLING. (Native.) Fruit small, but very fine flavor.

HEATHCOTE. (Native.) This variety may be placed among the best. The present season, we found it little, if at all, inferior to the Saint Michael, (Doyenné blanc.)

ANDREWS. (Native.) A pear of great merit; it will be extensively cultivated as it becomes better known.

TYSON. (Native.) Though last on my memorandum, not least in my estimation. This fine variety originated at Jenkinstown, near Philadelphia, some fifty years ago, and although it may be classed among the best, it did not find its way into the State of Massachusetts until the year 1835, or 1836; when scions were sent by Dr. James Mease, of Philadelphia, to the Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, with an assurance that the Tyson would prove equal to the Seckel. Mr. French gave a part of the scions to various cultivators, and, among the recipients, was William Oliver, Esq., of Dorchester, who grafted the scions received into the leading branch of a fine healthy tree. In the year 1841 or 1842, and, for some two or three succeeding years, Mr. Oliver presented specimens of the Tyson pear at the rooms of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. We were present and partook of the first specimen that Mr. Oliver presented; and have continued to notice the pear, from year to year, until the past season. We now rank it, as we have ever done, among the best summer pears.

Roxbury, February 11th, 1847.

ART. VIII. George the IVth Peach. By W. R. PRINCE, Flushing, L. I.

I HAVE been anxious, for several years past, to solve the mystery which has hnng over this fruit, and at the same time

to present such facts and proofs as would satisfy others. In this research, I have received the most important aid from a gentleman of great intelligence, but who is, at the same time, one of the least assuming votaries of Pomona, John W. Knevels, Esq., of Fishkill. I received intimation long since that the tree in the garden of the late Robert Gill, Esq., in Broad Street, New York, whence the scions of the so-called George the IVth were obtained, was an inoculated tree; but it is only within about three years, that I have ascertained satisfactorily that the tree was obtained from my father, under another title. I am now enabled to state these facts positively, and to refer to unquestionable authority for proof on these two important points. Dr. James S. Rumsey, a great connoisseur of fruits, who resides at Fishkill Landing, is a step-son of the late Robert Gill, Esq., already referred to, and who, at the latter part of his life, removed from Broad Street, New York, to Fishkill Landing. The lady of the late Mr. Gill, who is the mother of Dr. Rumsey, now resides with him, and is in perfect possession of all her faculties. Mr. Knevels, in his letter to me, states thus: "From them I have often heard it asserted that the peach named and noticed by Mr Floy, as the George the IVth, was obtained, as is in fact well known." (This Mr. Floy himself states.) "The tree grew in their court yard, in Broad Street, and was one of several trees received by Mr. Robert Gill, at one time, under an order sent to your nursery, for so many trees of the Red Rareripe; of this there can be no question."-In reply to an application made by me (Mr. Knevels) at your instance to Dr. Rumsey, he says: "The fact of the original George the IVth peach tree having been procured from Mr. Prince, as the Red Rareripe, I have often mentioned to you and others interested in such matters."

Such is the information obtained from other sources; I will now speak for myself. In the spring of 1843, I planted a tree of our ordinary Red Rareripe, (which is called "Morris Red Rareripe," by Mr. Downing,) and a tree of the George IVth side by side, and they have both borne fruit for three seasons; and, on a critical comparison of growth, foliage, glands, flowers, and fruit, I cannot perceive the least particle of distinction. I therefore pronounce them to be identically the same, 13

VOL. XIII.-NO. III.

and to be the original and ancient Red Rareripe, brought to Flushing by the Huguenot emigrants at the Revocation of the edict of Nantes, together with the Pomme d'Api apple, St. Michael, and Summer Bon Chrétien pears, and some other fine fruits, all of which were extensively cultivated in the nursery and orchards of my grandfather, and have continued to be so in numerous orchards and gardens up to the present period. The Red Rareripe peach has been propagated to a greater extent in our nurseries than any other variety, and disseminated to every part of the Union. It acquired its cognomen of "Morris," from being extensively cultivated in the orchards of Gouverneur Morris, and his relatives, at Morrissania, a few miles from the city of New York.

The genuine original Red Rareripe, or George IVth, has globose glands. The Red Rareripe of Mr. Downing, No. 41 of his work on fruits, is a distinct variety, and has serrated leaves, without glands.

I shall send you the results of other investigations connected with the history, nomenclature, and synonomy of the varieties of the peach from time to time; and in order to be perfectly au fait on the subject, I have concentrated in my specimen grounds every variety of note, obtainable from France, Italy, England, and our own country, and have even obtained specimen trees of all the principal nursery and orchard collections throughout the Union, for the purpose of perfecting the synonomy of this estimable class of fruits. On investigation, I reject every inferior variety, and the collection now offered, with the additional highly estimable varieties, which I shall announce in our catalogue for the ensuing autumn, comprise fruits of most admirable qualities, whose introduction will form a new era in the peach culture.

Linnæan Bot. Gard. and Nurseries, Flushing, L. I. Feb. 1847.

ART. IX. Hydrangea Japónica, its Cultivation, with an Engraving of the Plant. By the EDITOR.

SINCE the earliest expeditions which have been sent out from Europe, in search of the Botanical or Floricultural

treasures of other countries, few, if any, have achieved greater results than that of Dr. Siebold, to Japan. For several years the choicest new plants which have, from time to time, been introduced to notice, have formed part of the gems which enriched his magnificent collection.

The Japan Lilies are perhaps the best known, as they are certainly the most gorgeous of his acquisitions. Hydrangea japónica, (fig. 14) the subject of our notice, though of less pretensions, is another fine plant; and we have just scen announced a most beautiful hardy spiræa, with flowers as white as snow and as double as the ranunculus, clothing the stems their entire length, which was brought home by this indefatigable traveller.

Hydrangea japónica, when it first flowered, was thought to possess less beauty than the old and familiar H. hortensis;

but the plants were young, and only produced inferior flowers; since the specimens have become older, and been grown with a view to show its elegance, it is acknowledged to far surpass the hortensis. A specimen from the garden of the London Horticultural Society was exhibited in 1845, from which our drawing is copied, and greatly admired; but, the last season,