THE PETUNIA. 



Ill 



which in Hamburgh, whence it was import- 

 ted into England, is the Franckindal. The 

 peach, so long known in England as the 

 Koval George, is the Grosse Migtwnne of 

 France, from which country it was carried 

 to Great Britain. [Our correspondent is, 

 we think, in the wrong here ; these two 

 sorts are essentially distinct even in their 

 blossoms, one being large and the other 

 small. — Ed.] The same fact applies to the 

 peach, called in this country "Morris's Early 

 Red Rareripe ;" that excellent fruit is, I 

 think, also the Grosse Mignonne of France. 

 The evil arises from the fact, that people 

 finding a good fruit of any kind in their 

 own ground, not knowing its proper name, 

 call it, or allow others to call it, by their 

 name. This is not only natural, but una- 

 voidable. I have noticed this for manj' years, 

 and have done all in ij^y power, without ef- 

 fect, to correct the evil. It is not among the 

 uninformed alone that this habit exists, but 

 men who are at the head of the profession, 

 as cultivators of fruits, run into the same 



errors. Mr. Knight, President of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society of London, sent a number 

 of fruits to the late John Lowell, Esq., 

 under mistaken names, some of which Mr, 

 Lowell sent to me ; as they have fruited, 

 I have been able to correct these mistakes. 

 One of these fruits was called the Worms- 

 ley Grange, the name of one of Mr. 

 Knight's estates ; but the pear is evidently 

 the Echassery of Duhamel, a fruit known 

 in France one hundred years ago. 



If, therefore, old fruits, long kno%\Ti to 

 the world, were frequently misnamed, it is 

 in no wise surprising that new kinds, un- 

 known before, should be misnamed, and 

 that their qualities should be unknown for 

 several years after they were brought into 

 existence. 



Many of the names under which the pears 

 were sent me by the Horticultural Society 

 of London, are, I believe, extinct ; at least 

 I have never met with them in any cata- 

 logue of pears now considered as worth 

 raisingr, s. g. p. 



<^o»» 



THE PETUNIA AND ITS CULTURE. 



BY AN AMATEUR, NEW- YORK. 



The Petunia, with the success of a good- 

 natured merry friend in society, has found 

 its way into almost every garden. When 

 Ave take into account, that there is not a day 

 or hour, from the first moment in May or 

 June, that its blossoms begin to unfold, till 

 the cold November frosts absolutely kill it, 

 that it is not literally covered with blos- 

 soms, it must be allowed to deserve the 

 place in the garden which it has acquired, 

 though its sweet and somewhat pleasant 

 fragrance is not admired by all, and though 

 it has little beauty of foliage to recommend it. 

 The two species of Petunia, from which 

 all the fine sorts now coming into cultiva- 



tion are raised, came originally- from Brazil. 

 The old White Petunia, P. 7iactyginiflora, 

 a coarse sort now rejected from most gar- 

 dens, was introduced from Brazil in 1823. 

 The old Purple Petunia, P. violacea, was 

 brought from Buenos Ayres in 1830. 



The English and American gardeners 

 have lately devoted some pains to the im- 

 provement of Petunias by crossing these 

 two sorts, and raising hybrids between them. 

 The result already has been the production 

 of a number of new varieties, which com- 

 pletely eclipse the old ones, and are really 

 beautiful ornaments to the parterre. There 

 are now not only plain whites, and rich pur- 



