NATIVE FRUITS. 461 



these are spoken of as new fruits brought into notice 

 by the exertions of the Society. 1 But now we have 

 the Dana's Hovey, Howell, Merriam, Sheldon, Tyson, 

 Lawrence, and many others, either of them more de- 

 sirable than the Fulton or Gushing ; and in the mean 

 time scores of native pears have been tested and esti- 

 mated. At the exhibition of 1829 apples were hardly 

 mentioned, and at that of 1874 there were less than 

 half as many dishes as of pears ; yet the remarks made 

 concerning the pear will apply generally to the apple 

 also. The show of grapes from under glass probably 

 varied less widely from those made at the present day (a 

 single bunch from Mr. Lowell weighed three pounds, 

 which would be thought large now) ; but native grapes 

 are not mentioned, and were probably represented only 

 by the Isabella and Catawba. 2 In no branch of horticul- 



year. The original tree in 1848 was very large for a Seckel, more than six 

 feet in circumference at one foot from the ground, and thirty feet high. It 

 was much decayed, so that it was feared it would not stand the blasts of 

 many winters; but in 1878 it still survived, and fruit from it had been shown 

 within two years at the exhibitions of the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society. 



1 Mr. Lowell, in 1828, said, that, though it was thirty-three years since 

 he turned his attention to horticulture, he could enumerate no valuable 

 table pears the evidence of whose origin in this country was to be deemed 

 unquestionable, except the Seckel, the Johonnot, the Lewis, the Heath- 

 cote, and a seedling from Dr. Alfred Baylies of Taunton. The Dix and 

 others were known but to very few, else they could not have failed to come 

 under the notice of Mr. Lowell. All these were accidental seedlings. 

 Probably the first attempt in this country to produce a new fruit by cross- 

 fertilization was by William Prince, who raised the Prince's St. Germain 

 from seed of the old St. Germain impregnated by the White Doyenne, 

 about 1806. While it is true that many of the finest native pears now in 

 cultivation are accidental productions, the seedlings of Messrs. Dana, Clapp, 

 and others, are the results of well-conducted experiments; and these, with 

 the numerous attempts to improve the native grape, both by pure seedlings, 

 and by crossing with the foreign species, may be ascribed to the direct or 

 indirect influence of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



2 The Isabella grape is said to have originated in South Carolina, and 

 was introduced to notice by William Prince in 1816. The Catawba was 



