(JO THE FLORIST. 



have conveyed on the merits and properties of the Apples exhibited would 

 have increased the value of their report (great as it is in its present 

 form) to fruit growers, and would have left nothing more to be desired in 

 reference to the fruits of 1859, excepting that local information relating 

 to soil, climate, and situation, which, when sent with fruit for exhi- 

 bition, assists Pomologists very materially in getting at facts illustrative 

 of the effects particular soils and localities are known to produce on 

 fruits — a point of vast importance, and which we hope will in time, 

 through the agency of the Fruit Committee of the Horticultural Society 

 and the Pomological Society, be attained. 



Some discussion has taken place in the pages of our contemporaries, 

 respecting the comparative merits of the Ribston and Cox's Orange Pippin 

 Apples, We can add our testimony as to the superiority of the latter 

 in 1857, having tasted the respective fruits under comparison ; nor do 

 we see that it at all detracts from the long recognized merits of the Ribston, 

 if in time a better fruit is produced — or put it on a par as regards 

 flavour — of a more productive habit, or one less liable to disease, than 

 the Ribston. For certain, the Orange Pippin is a very first class pro- 

 duction, and, without premising that each individual fruit will at all 

 times be superior to the Ribston (which would be a bold assertion to 

 mak^ in reference to any kind of fruit, comparatively), we may take it 

 for granted that it has lew — if any — equals, taking all its qualities into 

 consideration. 



It will afford no small encouragement to English hybridists and 

 pomologists to know that the palm of excellence for dessert Pears was 

 unanimously awarded to a British raised fruit — " Monarch " — a seed- 

 ling of that prince of horticulturists, the late Mr. Andrew Knight, 

 who also originated the Eyewood, Broompark, Althorp Crassane, and 

 other Pears. Compared with the flavour of Monarch, many of the 

 large fruits exhibited from the continent were worthless, though 

 wonderfully fine looking in appearance. Will none of our pomologists 

 take up the mantel of Mr. Knight, and try what can again be effected 

 with fruits, by a careful system of crossing? Surely we have not yet 

 reached that perfection, that we can afford to dispense with further 

 improvement. The fact of an English raised seedling beating the 

 choicest continental productions is suggestive as to what may yet be 

 effected, both in Pears and other hardy fruits, through hybridisation. 

 It is impossible to read the notes appended to the different collections of 

 Pears, without being forcibly struck with the difference in regard to 

 flavour, between specimens of the same kind from different localities ; 

 although we think it will always be impossible to generalise very closely 

 as to the cause of this difference, a careful statement of the particulars 

 named in the schedule, which should be applied for and filled up by 

 each contributor, would do much to solve the question. The different 

 conditions under which fruits ripen, as to temperature, and the degree 

 of ripeness under which they are tasted, produces a great difference on 

 their respective qualities. In repect to soils, so far as our own 

 experience leads us to form an opinion, calcareous loams and soils of a 

 clayey or marly texture, containing lime and potash, invariably produce 

 Apples and Pears more melting and higher flavoured than soils of an 



