in the United States. 7 



A great number of new strawberries are noticed in some 

 of the agricultural journals ; Dr. Brinkle, of Philadelphia, 

 having raised two hundred and fifty varieties since 1842, 

 and Mr. Burr, of Ohio, about fifty. We await the opinions of 

 our friends in regard to their merits. At least three years 

 will be required to accurately test their value before offering 

 to the public. To raise a strawberry from seed one year, 

 bring it into fruit, with a dozen or two berries the second, 

 and name, describe, and offer it for sale the third, will not be 

 a sufficient guaranty to induce cultivators to buy. Princess 

 Alice Maud, the Swainston seedling, Prince Albert, the 

 British dueen, and other foreign kinds, though some of them 

 are tolerably good, have proved far inferior to American 

 seedlings, and they cannot be relied upon for principal crops. 



The establishment of a class of premiums by the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, through the liberality of some 

 unknown amateur cultivator, must have a good tendency in 

 the selection of fruit ; these premiums being for the best two or 

 three varieties during a series of three years ; and those kinds 

 which gain two out of the three, will have the standard of 

 superiority, so far as the fruit alone is concerned ; something 

 must then be allowed in regard to the growth and hardiness 

 of the tree, and the general qualities of productiveness, beauty, 

 &c. &c. Good results, however, must follow, as the commit- 

 tee will, at the close of each year, publish a list of the names 

 of the fruits which take the premiums. 



Floriculture. 



The increasing interest in Pomology, and especially a de- 

 sire for information relative to new pears, has induced us to 

 devote much of our room to that subject ; consequently our 

 last two volumes have not contained so many articles upon 

 the cultivation of plants as those which preceded them ; with 

 an increase, however, of the number of pages, we shall again 

 look well to the interest of the Florist, and endeavor to devote 

 our usual room to the cultivation of rare and beautiful plants. 



Our last volume, however, contains some excellent articles. 

 The phlox, which has recently attracted more attention from 

 the increased beauty of the Belgian seedlings, has been the 

 subject of a notice, and we have described twenty-four of the 



