VARIETIES OF THE QUINCE. 2? 



when it assumed a rich golden yellow early in the season, 

 was what first arrested Mr. Fuller's attention. "It is 

 large and uniformly pear-shaped, occasionally with a long 

 slender neck, not larger than a man's thumb. Flesh 

 fine-grained, with very little of the usual grittiness com- 

 mon to the quince. " Dr. Thurber adds to these points 

 of Mr. Fuller's description, that the surface is somewhat 

 ridged, that the calyx is set in a deep, wide basin, and 

 that the flesh is remarkably tender and well-flavored. 

 The specimen figured weighed nineteen ounces. 



8. THE JAPANESE QUINCE ( Cydonia Japonica) is the 

 well-known flowering quince of our gardens, and is con- 

 spicuous in early spring for its brilliant flowers. It is a 

 thorny, straggling, and bushy plant, sen ding up numerous 

 suckers, which admirably adapt it for forming hedges, for 

 which purpose it is often used. The fruit is generally 

 elliptical, but often resembles a peach. The color is 

 greenish yellow, often with blushing cheeks. The flesh 

 is very hard and firm, but strongly aromatic. The jelly 

 made from it is excellent. It will flavor two or three 

 times its own bulk of other fruits. The scarlet flowers 

 of the Japonica, as they open among the first blossoms 

 of spring, are unsurpassed in their brilliancy and the 

 charm they impart. 



9. MEECH'S PROLIFIC QUINCE. This variety is the 

 most uniformly prolific of all known varieties. So far 

 as I have been able to trace its history, it originated in 

 Connecticut over thirty years ago, and was slightly dis- 

 tributed under the name of the Orange quince, or with- 

 out any specific name. Some trees were taken to New 

 York, Ohio, and New Jersey, but no general attention 

 was attracted to its merits until the stock came into the 

 hands of the author, who, after testing it beside other 

 sorts, published in 1883 an article in the American 

 Agriculturist, describing it under the name of the Pear- 

 shaped Orange Quince. The article attracted the atten- 



