GUIDE TO THE ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



45 



fore, looks to the Guide to the Orchard as a 

 pomological work of high value, as a volume 

 of reference, will find it such. Whoever ex- 

 pects to find it a manual expressing the 

 state of pomological knowledge at this time, 

 will be greatly disappointed. 



Mr. Floy's additions to the edition now 

 published, are embraced in an appendix of 

 11 pages. In this, he notices 9 apples, 11 

 pears, 7 plums, and 2 quinces, not described 

 in his edition of 1833. We suppose, there- 

 fore, these are all the American fruits of the 

 last thirteen years, that he considers worth 

 a place now in a work on Pomology. Such 

 varieties as the Northern Spy apple, Craw- 

 ford's Melocoton peaches, the Ohio grape, 

 the Boston nectarine, the Fastalff rasp- 

 berry, Hovey's Seedling strawberry, and 

 other sorts of the highest reputation, he has 

 not thought it worth while to introduce in 

 this volume. 



There are some odd notions in the appen- 

 dix, which will not escape the eye of the 

 pomologist, such as the follovi^ing : 



" Dix Pear. — We doubt whether this is not the 

 old Brown Beurre. 



Louis-Bonne de Jersey. — Prohabli) the Louis- 

 Bonne. It may, however, be a distinct seedling va- 

 riety," &c. 



Mr. Floy describes, under a separate 

 head, (page 413,) what he calls the " New- 

 York Virgalieu" Pear. As we understand 

 his remarks, we infer that he wishes to es- 

 tablish the point that this sort is a seedling 

 variety, raised by Williamson, a New-York 

 nurseryman, more than forty years ago ; and 

 that it is identical with the sort generally 

 known and described by us, and supposed to 

 have been introduced by the late Parmen- 

 tier of Brooklyn, as the Surpasse Virgalieu. 



In all this, Mr. Floy may be correct. The 

 'u^'ory of the Surpasse Virgalieu, has al- 

 \ IV- I'ecn inv(;lved in doubt; and it is by 



no means improbable that it was really rais- 

 ed by Williamson. The droll part of the 

 affair is, however, this : Mr. Floy quotes 

 as synonyms to this sort, the following 

 names, viz : 



Virgalieu. Nursery Cat. 1807. 

 Surpasse Virgoulouse. Parmentier. 

 Columbian Virgoulouse. Bloodgood. 

 Columbia. Downing. 

 St. Michael, of Boston cultivators. 



Does Mr. Floy really suppose that the 

 cultivators of Boston, to whom the Surpasse 

 Virgalieu is well known, would ever con- 

 found it with the old St. Michael's or Doy- 

 enne ? or that we could not tell the differ- 

 ence between this medium sized autumn 

 fruit, and. the large and distinct winter pear, 

 known as the Columbial There is no more 

 resemblance between the two, than betweeii 

 a Newtown Pippin and a Eoxbury Russet I 

 There is, as Mr. Floy truly says, no re- 

 semblance between the White Doyenne and 

 the " New- York Virgalieu," (that is, the 

 Surpasse Virgalieu.) But the Virgalieu of 

 the New- York markets, and of the State at 

 large, is by no means the Surpasse Virga- 

 lieu. It is the old White Doyenne, the St. 

 Michael's of Boston ; and this is, we believe, 

 universally acknowledged by every fruit 

 grower in the country. 



Mr. Floy is, we believe, a worthy man 

 and an experienced gardener. The descrip- 

 tion of the few American fruits in his edi- 

 tion of this work, published in 1833, were 

 really excellent ; and on comparing those 

 with the hasty and imperfect ones in the 

 appendix to this volume, we have more than 

 once been tempted to believe that the latter 

 were never written by him ; but that his 

 name has been used or continued to give 

 currency to these crude additions to the ori- 

 ginal volume. 



