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The curculio is the great foe to a much more extended cultivation of the plum; but a fruit so valuable, not only for the table, but for the kitchen, should not be neglected with a little extra care and expense, the curculio may be so subdued, as to do no material injury to a crop.

Our catalogues contain about forty different kinds of native seedlings, many of which have been some time in cultivation, while others are quite new, and recently made known to the public among the latter, are several which have been produced on the Hudson River, that famed locality for plums, and four of them we are now about to describe and figure. Fine specimens were sent to us from the original trees, and each of them we consider fine acquisitions to any collection. We shall continue our descriptions of both foreign and native kinds ::

1. MULBERRY. Fruits and Fruit Trees of America.

Fig. 46. Mulberry.

Fruit, large, about two inches long, and one and a half in diameter, oval, tapering most towards the stem, with a slight suture on one side: Skin, pale dull yellow, dotted with a few crimson specks, covered with white dots, and a thin, whitish bloom: Stem, medium length, about one inch, rather slender, curved, and inserted with scarcely any cavity on an elongated obtuse point: Flesh, greenish yellow, rather coarse, melting, and adhering to the stone: Juice, abundant, rich, sugary and excellent: Stone, large, oblong, pointed at each end. Ripe the first of September.

This fine plum, (fig. 46,) nearly equal in size to the Washington, but much more oval, was raised in the famous plum garden of Isaac Denniston, of Albany. The tree is moderately vigorous, with large, broad, crumpled leaves.

2. ALBANY BEAUTY. Fruits and Fruit Trees, &c. Fruit, medium size, about one and a half inches long, and nearly one and a half in diameter, roundish oval, with a very

Fig. 47. Albany Beauty. ling varieties, and, though an excellent plum.

3. DENNISTON'S SUPERB.

shallow suture: Skin, greenish

yellow, with stripes of a darker

shade, dotted with red on the sunny side, having a crimson blotch at the base of the stem, and covered with a thin bloom: Stem, rather long, about three quarters of an inch, slender, curved, and slightly inserted in a small, shallow cavity: Flesh, yellow, melting, and separating from the stone: Juice, abundant, sweet and rich: Stone, medium size, ovate. Ripe the last of August, and first of September.

This variety, (fig. 47,) is another of Mr. Denniston's Seednot so large as the Mulberry, is

Fruits and Fruit Trees, &c. Fruit, medium size, about one and a half inches long, and one and a half in diameter, oblong oval, rather full at the end, tapering much to the stem, with a distinct suture extending half round: Skin, greenish yellow, shaded and blotched with crimson on the sunny side, and covered with a thin lilac bloom: Stem, medium length, about three quarters of an inch, rather slender, curved, and inserted without any cavity on an elongated end: Flesh, yellow, very melting and thick,

Fig. 48. Denniston's Superb. separating freely from the stone: Juice, plentiful, rich, vinous, high-flavored, and delicious:

Stone, medium size, with three prominent ridges on one side, and very pointed at one end. Ripe the last of August, and first of September.

This plum, (fig. 48,) is decidedly the richest of any of Mr. Denniston's Seedlings that we have tasted, and comes nearly or quite up to the Green Gage. Its flesh is of great consistence, exceedingly melting and luscious. In size, it is about the same as the Green Gage, but is much more elongated towards the stem. It is a great acquisition.

4. DENNISTON'S RED. Fruits and Fruit Trees, &c.

Fruit, large, about one and three quarters inches long, and one and a quarter in diameter, roundish oval, tapering towards

Fig. 49. Denniston's Red.

each end, with a distinct suture extending half round: Skin, pale violet red, somewhat marbled with light and dark shades, thickly dotted all over with fawn-colored specks, and covered with a thin violet bloom: Stem, long, about one inch, slender, and inserted in a rather large deep cavity: Flesh, dark amber or yellow, melting and separating from the stone: Juice, moderately abundant, sweet, sprightly, and excellent: Stem, small, ovate, compressed, pointed at each end. Ripe the first of September.

This variety, fig. 49,) is a very handsome red plum, not surpassed by any of the same color. It was also raised by Mr. Denniston, as its name indicates, and is well worthy of a place in a choice collection of plums.

The past season, Mr Denniston exhibited, at the show in Albany, many additional varieties of seedling plums, and probably we may have some more new sorts to add to the fine ones which he has already produced. The plum is yet

susceptible of a good deal of improvement, and we may yet hope to find the excellence of the Green Gage in a fruit of the size of the Washington.

ART. II. The Virgoulouse, or White Doyenné Pear.
By S. D. P. New Haven, Conn.

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, there was no pear cultivated in this section of the country of such universally admitted excellence as the Virgoulouse, or, as it is called by some, the St. Michael, or White Doyenné. Every cultivator of pears, if he had but one tree, would choose this sort, and many gardens contained several trees with no other variety. About that time, or soon after, the fruit began to crack and blast, and, for many years past, the trees in many of our gardens have hardly produced a single perfect or good pear; and the cultivation of this once favorite and delicious fruit is now generally abandoned in this vicinity.

Remembering the high relish with which I had eaten the Virgoulouse in my boyish days, I read with much interest the remarks of Mr. Downing, in his Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, on this pear, of which the following is an ex

tract:

"It is an old French variety, but, with us, is in the most perfect health, and bears annually large crops of superb fruit. On the seacoast, an unhealthy, diseased stock of this pear has been propagated, until it has become so liable to cracking as to be nearly worthless. In this case, it is only necessary to renew the stock by procuring it again from healthy sources. This experiment has been fairly proved of late."—(p. 379.)

In the same autumn (1845) that I read these remarks of Mr. Downing, I sent to him an order for some fruit trees, and included in my list the White Doyenné, or Virgoulouse, fully crediting what he had written on the subject. I prepared the ground thoroughly for the trees, and gave them a deep rich soil. The Virgoulouse has grown finely, and is a very thrifty, beautiful tree. It has this year borne fruit, and you may

judge what was my surprise and disappointment to find that every pear, when about half or two thirds grown, began to crack, and ultimately the whole proved worthless. I am, therefore, forced to the conclusion that, however well the Virgoulouse may do in other parts of the country, it cannot be cultivated in this vicinity; and I trust that Mr. Downing, if he publishes another edition of his work, will correct his statement in regard to this pear, and admit that there are some parts of the country in which it cannot be produced of any value. He must do this, or allow that he has himself propagated the diseased stock. S. D. P.

New Haven, Nov. 1847.

In our Review of the Fruits and Fruit Trees, when that work first appeared, we particularly noticed the paragraph extracted above, and commented upon it at some length, as we were quite surprised that Mr. Downing should hold to so absurd a notion, that the cracking of the Doyenné pear in the Eastern States was the result of its propagation on diseased stocks; and that, to grow it abundantly, it was only necessary to procure trees from an inland nursery. We considered his remarks as an attack upon the honesty of Eastern nurserymen, and defended them from so unjust an accusation. The simple fact that the Doyenné pear is cultivated in many gardens in Boston in all the beauty and excellence of its palmiest days, is sufficient to refute so barren an idea. Numerous cases have come under our notice like that of our correspond. ent; young trees procured from the Highland Nurseries having borne fruit in no way superior to old trees existing in numerous gardens around Boston.

The cracking of this and other pears must be sought from some other cause than diseased stocks: we are not yet without hope that some additional light will be thrown upon this interesting subject, and that we may yet see the Doyenné in all its former beauty.

Practically, for this section of country, Mr. Kenrick's views in regard to many old pears are correct. In favorable situations, or upon the quince stock, the Doyenné, St. Germain, Brown Beurré, and other pears, are produced in perfection; but, for orchard cultivation, no individual would

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