FOKEION NOTICES. 



rol\'lL)i] ^'o1Ice.s. 



Scraps of Histort of^ Popular English Fkuit. — The increase and skillful ap])lication in tlie 

 adorninent of our parks, gardens, and dwolling-iilaccs with beautiful flowers and plants has ever 

 "been regarded as one of the most commendable and meritorious marks of pereons of taste. T« 

 show how true and proper these views are, it would only be necessary to refer to the Tuagnificent 

 timber trees and ornamental shrubs and flowers which enrich and beautify so many of the 

 country residences of persons of wealth in all parts of Great Britain. This is in a large measure 

 both good and profitable; but it is but a section — a part of a great work; and although the 

 eff"ects are felt and enjoyed by every inhabitant of these islands, the actual benefit and ownership 

 is enjoyed by the opulent only. The encourager, cultivator, and patron of hardy fruit-bearing 

 trees, on the contrary, confers a universal benefaction alike on the rich and the poor. Every 

 person who shares at all in the enjoyments of floriculture envies, more or less, the enjoyment 

 and satisfaction of those who originate some garden cross-bred plant possessing qualities which 

 speedily render it an object of popular attraction. A new Dahlia, a new Fuchsia, a new Pelar- 

 gonium, or any similar flower when raised by some fortunate amateur, carries with it everywhere 

 the name of the raiser; and this is always deemed a mark of honorable distinction which every 

 real florist is very properly ambitious to obtain. So also is it with other kinds of horticultural 

 productions ; and all this is \evy proper, and we need not say agreeable : and why should a flori>t 

 be indifferent to the feeling and desire so common in all other classes — that is, to perpetuate his 

 name by associutioiis with some object connected with those pursuits in which he takes especial 

 delight ? We say all this is perfectly right. 



If in these fugitive and short-lived objects there be honor and distinction sufficient to stimulate 

 the efforts and zeal of the florist, what must be the honor justly felt by the originators of some 

 new kind of hardy fruit — fruit fitted alike for the use of rich and poor — such, for example, as 

 the Keswick Cod'.in, the Hawthorndean, the Ribston Pippin aj>ples, the Damson and Orleans plums, 

 the Jargonelle pear, and other popular fruits, some one or other of which is certain to be found 

 in every cottager's garden in Great Britain? It is a singular fact connected with the h'story of 

 fruit trees, which has been strenuously contended for by some and denied by others, that fruit 

 trees, after a given number of years, deteriorate and become useless. This is asserted to be the 

 case with the Golden Pippin, which, it is affirmed, is not now what it was, in point either of size, 

 flavor, or productiveness, fifty years ago. We are not qiiite sure that we are jireparcd to deny 

 this theory, but several other kinds of apples have more recently been introduced, and some of 

 the?e of high merit; and it is not very impossible that the comparative merits of this variety 

 have suffered in public estimation from this cause, rather than from any actual deterioration in 

 the quality of the fruit itself, and so also with others similarly regarded. In the north of Eng- 

 land the Rihston Pip>pi7i has long been the favorite apple, as the Blenheim Orange has been in the 

 ■west. It is a little singular that within the last few days the following remarks respecting the 

 original tree of the Blenheim Orange apple have come into our hands : 



"The last remnant of the stem of the original tree of the Blenheim Orange which first pro- 

 duced this celebrated apple is no more — the sapless and molding relic itself exists no longer: 

 th:.t which the wood-louse and the worm were gradually consun)ing, the war of the elements 

 and the hand of man have hastened to a swifter decay. The rains and wind of last autumn 

 leveled the rotten and hollow shell, and the broken fragments have been gathered up and corn- 

 to the fire. 'Tlirown down and cast into the oven,' this time-honored relic has fulfilled 

 stern decree of Nature against all vegetable life. The only sound piece of wood remaining 



