General Notices. 417 



inspection by all cultivators, but they teach an important 

 lesson to all who are interested in horticultural improvement. 

 They demonstrate that beautiful gardens and fruitful or- 

 chards may be enjoyed in the bleakest situations, in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the seashore; and, as New England 

 possesses so great an extent of seacoast, abounding in places 

 desirable, from the salubrity of the locality, for summer resi- 

 dences, Mr. Tudor's example will be well worthy of imita- 

 tion ; and though all may not possess the means of accom- 

 plishing as much, there are others who will be ready to avail 

 themselves of his plan, without regard to cost, gratified to 

 know how much they may enjoy, and acknowledging their 

 indebtedness to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Tudor, in 

 his triumph of art over nature. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Injurious effect of excessive quantity of Fruit. — Writers on rural econ- 

 omy, in order to adapt their style to the intelligence of their readers, dis- 

 tinguish fruit trees from forest trees. But, strictly speaking, this division 

 is not correct. All trees, as well as herbaceous plants, have their fruit, as 

 indeed the vphole of the vegetable kingdom, not even excluding Cryptoga- 

 mous plants, if we may trust to the most learned botanists. These fruits 

 are frequently what we usually call seeds. What we are more especially 

 accustomed to call fruit, is generally only the substance which forms the 

 outer covering, sometimes leathery in appearance, as the shell of the wal- 

 nut, or fleshy, like that of the peach or the apple. This preliminary ob- 

 servation was necessary in order to explain that an excessive production of 

 fruit may happen to any plant brought into a state of peculiar vigor, either 

 by the nature of the nutriment given it, or by that of the locality in which 

 it is placed, or by the extraordinary character of the season. This, how- 

 ever, is more especially apparent to the agriculturist in the case of the trees 

 more commonly styled fruit trees We see frequent examples of it in the 

 apple and pear. Now, it is certain that this superabundance is the cause 

 of the fruit being inferior in quality ; and often their external conformation 

 is not good. An apple tree overloaded with fruit has them generally of a 

 very small size. 



Cultivators usually care little if the seeds of a large number of plants are 

 well formed or not. As far as concerns them, all they look for is, that the 

 fruit should be externally Avell formed, and that their flavor should be as 



VOL. XV. — NO. IX. 53 



