AT CHISWICK. 597 



It was considered essential, in the catalogue of a public esta- 

 blishment like that of the Society, that every distinct variety which 

 ever had a name, and actually been in cultivation, should find a 

 place in its catalogue ; hut it was admitted that a multitude of 

 varieties must, on that principle, be included in it which would 

 ultimately be found useless. And it was proposed that iu future 

 catalogues information should be given distinguishing the good 

 from the bad. In the meantime, however, it was a simple list 

 of names, without any description, or indication of q^uality, or 

 other information. 



In 1831, a second edition of the catalogue was published, in 

 which considerable advance was made, not only in clearing up 

 the doubtful synonyms and eliminating the bad varieties, but 

 there were given, moreover, an estimate of the relative worth 

 of the various kinds, and short-hand columns furnishing abbre- 

 viated indications of their respective characters. 



The system by which these conclusions were arrived at was to 

 record only the results of actual trial in the garden. Nothing 

 was put in on hearsay, nothing taken from books, nothing upon 

 trust. The trials too were all made in the same garden, according 

 to the same rules, and by the same individuals. This course was, 

 indeed, in a measure compulsory, for the catalogue was specially 

 intended for the use of the Fellows, and the characters bore re- 

 ference to the plants distributed among them. The plan followed 

 is thus modestly recorded in the third edition, which appeared 

 iu 1842. Speaking of the cases where no information is given, 

 it is said : *' In such instances no certain information has been 

 yet collected at the garden with respect to those varieties ; owing 

 either to the trees not having fruited, or to the variety having 

 been lost, or to inaccuracies having been discovered in the names 

 of the plants received at the garden. It would in many cases 

 have been easy to have filled up the blanks from books, or such 

 MSS. of the Society as have been collected independently of 

 the garden ; but it has been thought better, in order to avoid 

 misconception, that the characters now given should have been 

 exclusively collected from observation on the very trees from 

 which cuttings are taken for distribution." This abnegation of 

 extraneous authorities has given the work a weight which cannot 

 be pretended to by any one not executed on similar principles. 

 Abbreviated though most of the information be, the work has 

 become the standard authority on the subject. 



The third edition bore ample evidence of the need there had 



