272 



THE GARDENEB'S MONTHLY 



[September, 



not resemble a previous one. Would you call it 

 Pound Sweet? 



Many Europeans have tried their hands at 

 poraological taxonomy, nolably the Germans, 

 as Lucas, for example. They have carried their 

 divisions to a fine point ; how far are they in 

 actual use? I hope to learn this summer. 

 Among us, Thomas and Warder, especially the 

 first, have presented simple and apparently rea- 

 sonable systems, but the great majority of culti- 

 vators don't know of their existence, and Down- 

 ing, chief of all, declares such an attempt vision- 

 ary. 



[The difficulty o\ir correspondent presents is 

 no more than the botanist meets with in his stud- 

 ies. If he were to take oak leaves alone, or 

 acorns alone, he would never get along! He 

 does not dream of classifying on one character 

 alone, but considers all. Why must a pomolo- 

 gist be restricted to a fruit ? There are quite as 

 striking diff"erences in the leavss, in the branch- 

 ing, in the flowers, and other parts, as in the 

 fruits. There is no apple varies more than the 

 Red Astrachan. By the . fruit alone we can 

 never be positive, but if we begin with the tree, 

 follow to the flower, and finish with the fruit, 

 one need never mistake in the Red Astrachan ; 

 nor indeed in any other variety treated in the 

 ame way. 



Let us say that few persons in this country have 

 given more attention to varieties of fruit than 

 the writer of this, but he has not been ambitious 

 to achieve a " name " as a " pomologist " because 

 of the absurdity of the endeavors to establish 

 systems on single and variable characters. It 

 is amusing to note even first-class " fruit men " 

 wrangling over the proper name of a plate of 

 fruit at a fair. The scene can only be paralleled 

 by looking at a party of hucksters higgling over 

 the price of a fish. We have no liking for this 

 sort of guess-work. 



We have great respect for the opinions of War- 

 der, Thomas, Barry, Downing, and others. We 

 should prefer their opinions on many questions 

 in relation to pomology to our own. But when 

 they assert that any better system of classifica- 

 tion than that of a heterogeneous mass of descrip- 

 tions of fruits alone, is visionary, if attempted, 

 we beg to differ from them. 



Visionary or not, this writer would certainly 

 make the attempt had he the time. There is 

 little doubt in our mind that some one will not 

 only try it some day, but try it and succeed. 

 This we have said often before in these pages. 



and see no reason to change our views. — Ed. 



G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Nectarine Produced from a Peach. — A val- 

 ued correspondent sends us an account of a 

 nectarine produced from a peach tree on the 

 grounds of Mr. E. Wilkins, of Maryland. It is 

 thought to be a case of " reversion." But the 

 first nectarine that was ever known was raised 

 in that manner — not by reversion, but by a sport 

 from a peach. "VMiat is called " reversion " by 

 animal physiologists is generally of the same 

 character, Nature is prolific in her powers of 

 varying form, and the resemblance to predeces- 

 sors is but an incident in the progress, and with 

 little or no regard to that which has gone before. 

 It is, in fact, just such illustrations as this of the 

 relationship of the peach to the nectarine which 

 proves how untenable much of this reversion- 

 ary theory is. 



Raspberry from Mr. Roe. — On the 18th of 

 July came to hand samples of a seedling rasp- 

 berry — but in one decayed mass. 



The Amsden Peach. — Mr. J. Wampler, Carthage, 

 Mo., says : "As the unprecedented freeze of 15th 

 March last destroyed the peach crop here, when 

 they were just coming out in bloom (mer- 

 cury fell almost to zero), we liope to hear 

 from more favored localities of the success 

 of the new early Peaches this year. So far as we 

 can learn none of the new peaches escaped here, 

 except three specimens of the Amsden in the 

 garden of Mr. Lewis, in Carthage. These were 

 all taken from the tree very ripe, on the 27th of 

 June, the largest measuring 7\ inches in circum- 

 ference. This is the fourth year the Amsden 

 has borne fruit here. The few specimens this year 

 being a little earlier than in any former year, 

 we think it safe to conclude that the Amsden is 

 at least eight or ten days earlier than Beatrice, 

 as in former years it was ripe eight days to two 

 weeks before Beatrice growing by its side. We 

 had hoped to see Amsden and Alexander side 

 by side this year, but the great freeze disappoint- • 

 edus; and we hope others will report, if any have 

 ripened the two varieties. 



The Alexander Peach. — We have seen some 

 letters addressed to Messrs. Jabez Capps & Sons 

 in regard to this j:>each, from California, which 

 compare it very favorably with Briggs' Red May, 



