CRITIQUE ON THE APRIL HORTICULTURIST. 



555 



menclature, to make a general examina- 

 tion at the periods of the flowering and 

 fruiting of the trees, to prove the identity of 

 the names of our varieties. This labor was 

 pursued during the first six years of our 

 plantation in the school, in such a way as 

 to correct errors which might have crept in. 

 There now, therefore, remains no doubt on 

 this head. But this is not the case with 

 many of the varieties obtained from various 

 parts of France, and more particularly from 

 abroad, since the publication of Duhamel's 

 work. The nomenclature of these is vague ; 

 in many cases the sorts have proved sy- 



nonymous with those already known ; and 

 it is necessary to wait till the trees have 

 fruited in order that they may be correctly 

 named."' 



It thus appears that the collection of the 

 Chartreux, made during a period of 150 

 years, was preserved by the exertions of 

 M. Thouin ; and of that collection the Hor- 

 ticultural Society of London received with 

 the above communication, grafts of 4S va- 

 rieties of plums, 99 of apples, and 145 of 

 pears. Peach and other kinds of fruit trees 

 were subsequently forwarded from the same 

 source. 



CRITIQUE ON THE APRIL HORTICULTURIST. 

 BY JEFFREYS, NEW- YORK. 



Your Leader. — Yes, old-fashioned stage- 

 coach travelling, to one who loves to see the 

 country as he passes through it, ivas some- 

 thing. In pleasant weather, whenever I 

 could, I always mounted the seat with the 

 driver, and thought it a privilege. And I 

 enjoyed it, too ; for I could then see the 

 country to the best advantage. But this 

 hop-skip-and-jump method of rail-roading 

 is death to the poetry of travelling, although 

 one may occasionally, in fine weather and 

 open cars, take a rapid and tolerably satis- 

 factory view of the chief features — but no- 

 thing beyond — of the country he passes. 



It is amusing, now and then, to see how 

 very particular some travelling gentlemen 

 are, to notice all the features of the coun- 

 try over which they pass, and then journal- 

 ize them, for the edification of the good 

 public, both at home and abroad. I give 

 you an instance from an eye-witness. When 

 Dickens was in this country — where, on his 

 arrival, the leaders of the literati in Boston 

 and New York made especial " Judys " of 

 themselves in his reception, for which he 

 afterwards very characteristically paid 



them off in abuse — he went, as every for- 

 eigner does, to Niagara. When at Buffalo 

 he took the cars, which follow, for most of 

 the way, close upon the bank of the Niagara. 

 One would have supposed that a river like 

 that, — world-famous for its cataract, its ra- 

 pids, its frightful chasms, as well as for its 

 beautiful, placid, and bay-like scenery, — 

 would have attracted his attention. But 

 quite another thing. Mr. Dickens, with his 

 wife, entered the cars, pulled some papers 

 from their pockets or bundles, looked over 

 them the whole way, with an occasional in- 

 terchange of monosyllables to each other, 

 and scarce looked out of the cars, though a 

 pleasant summer day, until they arrived at 

 the Falls, when they instantly removed 

 their luggage to the truck, and went with 

 it at once to the ferry down below the cata- 

 ract, without waiting a moment, or asking 

 a question, excepting which was the read> 

 est way into Canada! And that, too, when 

 he had been kindly furnished with letters 

 to sundry gentlemen, sojourners tl»'-n\ who 

 had also been requested by their friends in 

 New York, to pay him the usual attention 



