380 Retrospective Criticism. 



From J. F. Allen, currants; Franconia raspberries, fine ; Hunt's Early 

 Tawney nectarines ; Muscat of Lunel, Ksperione, \yilmot"s Black Ham- 

 burgli, White Nice, Ferral, and Zinfindal grapes. From A. W. Withington, 

 Early Harvest and Red Astrachan apples; blackberries, fine. From Otis 

 Johnson, blackberries ; Citron des Carmes pears ; Mazzard cherries ; White 

 Dutch currants, fine ; White Muscat, Zinfindal, fine. Black Hamburgh, fine, 

 grapes. From T. Needham, Cannon Hall Muscat, Golden Chasselas, and 

 Black Hamburgh grapes. Fr)m Samuel Bigelow, Black Hamburgh, fine, 

 grapes. From Cheever Newhall, Citron des Carmes pears. From George 

 W^ils(»n, May's Victoiia, very fine, White Dutch, very fine, currants. 

 From John Washburn, Red Astrachan apples. 



Art. IV. Retrospective Criticism. 



The Aberdeen Beehive Strawherry , c^c., (p, 332.) — As I invariably annex 

 my name to every important horticultural communication, I do not deem it 

 incumbent upon me to notice every anonymous scribbler, especially when 

 he adopts that cowardly course in order to give to his " silly twattle" a de- 

 gree of" importance which would not be attached to his real identity. It 

 would seem that, even now, the faMe of ^sop, enrobing the ass with the 

 lion's hide, is to be personified anew by the \vriter, who signs himself " A 

 Subscriber," in your last number. The public would, however, be much 

 the gainer, if he would confine himself to his " gallipots and jalap," in lieu 

 of his perpetual filching and falsifying the writings of others, arising from 

 his utter incapacity to originate one new idea. The article referred to is an 

 appropriate sequence to one from the same writer in the Horticulturist for 

 May, where he states, in refenjnce to the " Aberdeen Beehive Strawberry," 

 that " iui one nursery firm has imported it that ice {he) know of,^^ when it 

 was notorious, with all well-informed persons, that it existed in at hast five 

 nurseries, and probably in many more. As regards my statement concern- 

 ing Its character, / examined the fiotvcrs carefully, and found them to be stam- 

 inate according to the usual application of the term, but hermaphrodite in 

 point of fact, and 1 draw the inferences advanced from all past experience. 



Now, sir, it is a positive fact, and Mr. Longworth and Mr. Huntsman 

 agree with me, that, up to the present year, every hermaphrodite straw- 

 berry, originated in England and imported here, has proved utterly worth- 

 less as to productiveness. We have been favored with " Wilmot's Superb," 

 "British Queen," "Elton Pine," " Mvatt's Pine," " Myatt's Eliza," 

 " Keen's Seedling," " Swainstone's Seedling," " Deptford Pine," and 

 more than twenty other varieties extolled to the skies, which have crossed 

 the Atlantic at great expense, each of which has, in its turn, sunk into 

 merited oblivion. Even the " Beehive" variety in question has disappoint- 

 ed the expectations of several growers in England, and Professor Lindley 

 declares that it is no wise superior to many of the older varieties. It may 

 be fairly inferred, from all past experience, that the hermaphrodite varie- 

 ties, (usually denominated staminale,) originated in England, although they 



