64 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fied to the scientific attainments and practical skill of their producers. The 

 nectarine is not a favorite fruit, and in quality does not correspond to its 

 appearance, the different varieties, with the exception of the Stanwick, being 

 deficient in sweetness and flavor. The grapes exhibited have consisted 

 of the varieties usually cultivated in the grapehouses in this vicinity — the 

 only novelty now recollected being a round purple grape, with both bunch 

 and berries of a good size, and covered with a fine bloom, called Lady 

 Downes, said to keep well on the vines for four or five months, and on that 

 account to be valuable. 



Notwithstanding that the season has seemed unfavorable to some species 

 of fruit, particularly the pear, to others it has appeared propitious. Straw- 

 berries, currants, cherries, as well as some others, were in more than usual 

 abundance, and of excellent quality. Such statements and observations as 

 appear appropriate to and required by the occasion, with respect to the 

 different species, will now be offered, taking the different kinds somewhat 

 in their order of ripening. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



The first strawberries of the season, grown in the open air, were a box 

 of Early Virginias, shown on the 12th of June ; the exhibitor stating that 

 he picked ripe berries from his vines on the 6th ; and the second was a box 

 of a new seedling, called Page's seedling, exhibited on June .19th. Page's 

 seedling is a handsome strawberry, of good size, conical form, and dark 

 color. It is good flavored, but seemed rather soft in the flesh. As it is so 

 early a variety, it may prove desirable. 



The principal exhibition of strawberries for the season was on the 3d 

 of July, on which day there was a magnificent display of this fruit, em- 

 bracing, with the older sorts, many new or recently introduced varieties. 

 These last, shown in considerable quantity, being of various colors, from 

 nearly white to very dark red, and many of them extra large in size, con- 

 stituted an exceedingly attractive exhibition. Among the newer varieties 

 may be mentioned Leopold, a very large crimson strawberry, of a coxcomb 

 shape ; Marquise La Tour Mauburg, large, dark colored ; Trollope's Victoria, 

 also large and fine, but of a color rather too pale ; River's seedling Eliza, 

 a large, coxcomb-shaped crimson berry ; Blake's Incomparable, a crimson ; 

 and Adair, a good sized scarlet variety. 



As no opportunity was afforded the Committee to test, in a satisfactory 

 manner, the different varieties, the expression of any opinion with respect 

 to their flavor is purposely withheld, as such, not carefully and deliberately 

 formed, might give an erroneous impression. It may not be amiss, how- 

 ever, to say, that scarcely any of the foreign varieties of the strawberry 

 have continued, for any long period, to give satisfactory results. They 

 seem more tender than the American varieties, more liable to be burnt by 

 the sun in summer, and injured by the cold in winter; besides that, they 

 are all, or nearly all, staminate or perfect in their flowers, and unless more 

 care and attention is paid than can usually be bestowed on their cultivation, 

 they become unproductive. The great size of their berries, their beauty 



