DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



287 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Pomology in Philadelphia. — Pa^sin<T a few 

 hours in Philadelpliia lately, we made a hasty visit 

 to our correspomlent Dr. W. D. Brinckle, who is 

 already known to horticulturists as one of the most 

 zealous of amateur cultivators. 



Dr. JBuinckle's penchant, as we were aware, is 

 the production of Seedling varieties of fruit. Hith- 

 erto he has been experimenting largely upon the 

 Strawherry and Raspberry, but he has now turned 

 his attention to the Pear, Apple, and other fruit 

 trees. 



His residence is one of the fine houses in Chest- 

 nut-st., forming part of the block known as Girard 

 Square. Of course, therefore, his gardening ope- 

 rations are mainly confined to the small space com- 

 prised in a deep yard of a town house. We con- 

 less that when we saw the collection of Seedling 

 fruits assembled there, in various stages of growth, 

 hundreds within that narrow space, and all most 

 systematically arranged — many that had already 

 given surprising results, and a raidtitude of others 

 that promised well — we found abundant proof how 

 easy it is to bring great results out of small means, 

 and how profitless to the country are thousands of 

 gardens, of the largest size. I'he limited aiea be- 

 fore us, only a few hundred square feet, contained 

 a promise of dozens of new varieties of fruit that 

 may be of priceless value hereafter to every one 

 leading a rural life. 



Dr. i3RiNCKLE's plan embraces both hybridising 

 and raising accidental varieties from seeds of the 

 finest known sorts. In order not to lose time, and to 

 be able perfectly to control the fertilization of jilants 

 under experiment. Dr. B. has been in the habit of 

 having a large number ot strawberries, raspberries, 

 etc., in pots. These continue their growth, bloom, 

 are crossed artificially, produce fruit, and the seed 

 is sown, in an apartment in the u])per part of his 

 house during the whole winter : thus enabling Dr 

 B. to carry on his scientific experiments throughout 

 the year. In Raspberries he has been particularly 

 successful. The C'ushing, already made known to 

 the public, is a variety of merit; IJut one which has 

 fruited for the first time this season — a fine strong 

 plant, eight feet high, with many side shoots, and 

 which, we understood from a friend who is a capital 

 judge, was quite a pomonal wonder in its way, bids 

 fair to eclipse all his other Seedlings. This is a 

 true yellow sort, much larger and liner than the 

 ■white [misnamed yellow] Antwerp, verj' produc- 

 tive, and of excellent fiavor. Dr. Brinckle showed 

 us a faithful drawing of this new Raspberry, which 

 he proposes to call Col. Wlder, after the distin- 

 guishcil President of the Massachusetts Society. 

 We hope to be able to give a drawing and descrip- 

 tion of this fruit in an early number of this journ<il. 

 When the various new specimens of trees and 

 plants have been tested, tho;«e worthy of jjreserva- 

 tion are removed to a farm some miles distant from 

 the city. Altogether we left Dr. Brinckle, and 

 his singularly rich and singularly limited grounds, 



with the feeling that he is doing as much or more 

 in originating new fruits, in a strictly scientific 

 way, than any other person in the country. 



Hovey's Fruits. — Mr. Hovey, of Boston, is 

 publishing a work on Fruits, with colored plates, of 

 which we took occasion to speak in favorable terms 

 in reviewing it, in our last volume. In our Septem- 

 ber nu liber a correspondent in Philadelphia, who 

 signed himself '' W.," pointed out certain defects in 

 the work in question, and complained of the disap- 

 pointment which he and others found in the execu- 

 tion of the work. As, on examining the work more 

 critically, we found his criticisms jjerfectly just, 

 there was no reason whj- we should withhold his 

 communication. 



Mr. HovEY, in the last number of his Magazine, 

 eomp.'ains that our correspondent's criticism was 

 dictated by malice ! and that, though dated Phila- 

 delphia, the stjle of the criticism denotes that it 

 was written by some one who does not live " many 

 miles" from Boston. 



We observe that our ci-devant friend, Mr. H., 

 makes all the fruits he describes " rich, sugary and 

 delicious," and keeps the '' sub-acid" for his edito- 

 rials. We assure him, very seriously, that our cor- 

 respondent is not one of his neighbors, but a deni- 

 zen of the cit}' of brotherly love. And since he will 

 have it that any one, in this country, who complains 

 [as if it was not an editor's dutj' to stand fire] must 

 be prompted by malice, we must call his attention, 

 against our better feelings, to the following extract 

 from a review of his '' Fruits of ^imrica" [we 

 wonder how he can sleep o' nights when he thmks 

 of that title!] by Robert Thompson, of the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society's Garden, who certainly 

 must be considered as good and as impartial a judge 

 as any in England : 



" The descriptions are very good ; the let- 

 ter press is got up in a superior manner. But we 

 cannot say so much of the plates. The colorii;gof 

 these is decidedly bad. For instance — in the Beui're 

 d'Aremberg, the yellow employed is not the proper 

 tint of the fruit ; but such as it is, it is also used for 

 tinging the leaves. T he fruit of the Glout Morccau 

 has a red, which naturally it does not possess. Judg- 

 ing from the specimen before us, chromolithing will 

 not answer for fruits. False coloring tends to mislead 

 — a plain representation is far preferable. — Gard- 

 ner's Lhron., London, July 31. 



Errata. — In our last number, in Mr. Eaton's 

 account of the Wcscott pear, for " Trescott" read 

 Wescott; for" Niles' Trescott" read iV'j/es' Wescott. 



Onondaga Pe.\r. — Specimens of this variety, re- 

 ceived by usi'rom Syracuse this season, though large 

 and hanilsome, were by no means equal in llavor to 

 those which we had lastyear, and we have the same 

 account of specimens sent to Boston. But as we 



