DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



289 



PoMOLOGiCAL NoTES. — Sir : A^reeaVjly to yom 

 request, last year, I now forward the Pomme Roy- 

 ale apple, known with us for an l.undred years, 

 judging from tlie appearance of some of our old 

 trees. It is, without doubt, of French origin, and 

 brought to Rhode-Island, with many other kinds of 

 choice fruit, after the revocation of the edict of 

 Nantes. During the Revolution, a great number 

 of Rhode Island gentlemen removed to Connecticut. 

 and purchased farms, taking with them all the 

 choicest kinds of fiuit — among them were a num- 

 ber of my connexions. I have a tree in bearing 

 from Woodstock, under the name of Pomme Roije, 

 which is identical with the kind here known by the 

 same name, and this is the apple sent to the Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society, and b)' them re- 

 named Dyer. One of the specimens sent is from a 

 tree of Dyer's. Within one week from the time 

 Mr. Dj'cr sent the specimens to Boston, and as a 

 new seedling variet}', he found the same apple in 

 my orchard, under the name 1 now apply to it, but 

 has never corrected the error, as in duty bound. 



I also send you specimens of the White Seek-no- 

 further — the trees came from Long Island. This 

 is one of the best apples grown, when in perfection, 

 but very unprofitable, is not a good bearer, and 

 with us not one in twenty is perfectly shaped ; it 

 keeps not longer than January ; the tree has droop- 

 ing branches, without fruit spurs, very large leaves, 

 and bears its fruit on the extremity of the long- 

 naked branches. I have received from Connecticut 

 the Winter Pomme Roye, with a descri]Hion of the 

 tree, and am fully persuaded that it is the same as 

 my White Si ek- no-further In the form of the 

 trees, my White Seek-nofurther and my Pomme 

 Royule very much resemble eacii other. 



I shall forward to you other specimens of fruit in 

 their season. I am very respectfully your obedient 

 servant. Stephen H. Smith. Smithfietd, R. I. Sept. 

 1847. 



We print the foregoing from a letter received 

 some time since from the President ot" the Rhode- 

 Island Horticultural Society, since it contains some 

 important information relative to two or three New 

 England apples, the names of wiiich have been 

 confounded together, and of which we have had 

 some dilliculty in obtaining true accounts. We 

 mean the sorts known as Pound Royal, Pomme 

 Ro'.ale and Dyr. 



From information and specimens sent us from 

 Connecticut, when we prepared our work on Fruits, 

 we supposed the Pomme Royale and Pound Royal 

 to be the same fruits, and accordingly gave them as 

 synonyms. But on examining the sjiecimens re- 

 ceived from Mr. Smith, and from half a dozen 

 other sources, this autumn, we perceive that wc 

 were in error. The fruit described in our work is 

 the Pound Royal, a winter apple — while the P ym me 

 Royale is an autumn fruit very distinct, andjof great 

 excellence. Tiiis error shall be corrected in the 

 next edition of our work, and those having the; pre- 

 sent edition will please erase Pomme Royale, p. 124, 

 and insert Pound Royal as the name of the fruit 

 there described. — Ed. 



The Monstrous Pompone Cling. — We have 

 received from James Dougall, Esq., Amherst- 



VoL. II. 37 



burg, Canada West, specimens of tliat fine old 

 French Cling, the Paviede Pompone, which grows 

 with him in great perfection. They were very 

 large, and of excellent flavor, and more finely co- 

 lored than the Heath Cling, though ripening about 

 tlie same season. In the first edition of our work 

 on Fruits, we underrated this magnificent late 

 cling-stone Peach, which we now find in warm 

 deep soils, is finer in this country than in France. 

 In the last edition of our work, we have, therefore, 

 corrected our error, and spoken of it as it deserves, 



Old Nonsuch, or Red Canada Apple. — We be- 

 lieve it is not generally known in Western New- 

 York, that the very fine winter apple known as the 

 Canada Red, or Red Canada, is an old variety, 

 known in New Enirhind, and especially around Bos- 

 ton, as the Old Nonsuch, for 30 or 40 years past. 

 The apple, as grown at Rochester, is so much im- 

 proved in size and appearance by the genial soil of 

 Western New- York, that it would hardly be recog- 

 nized b}' a Massachusetts orchardist, but having 

 our doubts on this subject, last winter we obtained 

 specimens of the Old Xonsuch from B. V. French, 

 Esq. of Boston, and found them identical with the 

 Red Canada. After this, Mr. Elliot, of Cleve- 

 land, sent us the Old Nonsuch of Massachusetts 

 grown in his soil, which corresponded precisely in 

 size and color, as well as form and flavor, with the 

 Rochesier Red Canadas. Au reste, we have, the 

 past summer, compared the wood, leaves and 

 growth (quite peculiar) of the Red Canada with 

 those of the Old Nonsuch, (which latter we have 

 growinir under our eye from five different sources,) 

 and find the two sorts entirely identical. 



It is singular that the history of this " Old Non- 

 such" is involved in so much obscurity. It is not 

 known whether it is a native or foreign apple — 

 thouirh it is certain it is not the Nonsuch of present 

 Ensrlish authors. We have it bj' this name from 

 the Flushinir nurseiy of Bloodgood, twenty }-ears 

 ago. and it is very well known in all the old orch- 

 ards of Massachusetts. In New-England, it is 

 rated as an ayple of first qunlity — though rather 

 an indiff'erent bearer ; but in Western New- York, 

 it is not only large and very high-colored, but quite 

 productive— altogether an apple of the first class. 



A Charming Fall Flower. — One of the pret- 

 tiest things to be found in the flower-garden in Oc- 

 tober and November, is the charming little Sedum. 

 sieboldii, lately introduced from Japan. It forms the 

 most symmetrical tuft of pale silvery foliage and 

 lovelj' pink blossoms imaginable in the autumn — a 

 well established plant bearing fifty or sixty rounded 

 corymbs of ficiwers. Although a tender looking 

 plant, it is one of the hardiest of all the herbiiceous 

 division, and blooms almost into December, in spite 

 of the most severe frosts. We observed it lately, 

 in several green-houses about New- York, grown in 

 pots, and kept under glass in winter, a care which 

 it does not at all recjuire, for Japan is, in climate, so 

 nearly lil<e our own, that a large portion of its ve- 

 getation is perfectly hardy here. 



This Sedum, like the rest of the genus, is very 

 easily propagated ; any bit of the stem taking root 

 as a cutting ; and it would mvke a pretty edging to 

 walks in tlie flower garden. 



