24 



numbered full seven years in anticipation of the de- 

 velopment of fruits under assurances as specious as 

 those by which the patriarch was stimulated to the 

 performance of his stipulated servitude, and, like him, 

 -^ on its termination, have found a Leah in the place of 



^^JuJL^^ -/^LnjiitiTf, and have again, like him, to accomplish 

 another term of years ere we could realize the hopes 

 we had formed in the acquisition of the object of 

 our desires. 



The pubhc nurseries and gardens of Middlesex 

 and Norfolk are entitled to preeminence among those 

 of New England, and Newton and Brighton, and 

 Charlestovvn and Milton and Roxbury, are laudably 

 competing with similar establishments in other sec- 

 tions of our country for the general patronage. 



A familiar acquaintance with the synonymes, and 

 their identity with the fruit, is essential to the conve- 

 nience of all classes of cultivators, and indispensable 

 to the proprietors of extensive nurseries. It will pre- 

 vent much of the confusion which now prevails, and 

 tend to correct the mistakes which frequently occur 

 to those who have not attended to this subject. 



If it has been the prevailing fashion to underrate 

 almost everything of domestic origin, and attach a 

 value to exotics in proportion to the distance from, 

 and the expense at which they were procured, it 

 was no less true of the products of the soil, than of 

 those of the workshop and the loom. Even the in- 

 tellectual labors of our countrymen have, until within 

 a short period, been received with the cold formality 

 with which an indigent acquaintance is often re- 



