Systematic Pomology and the Plums 3 



These blanks are printed on strong, stiff paper, 

 and carefully cut to 5^x8| inches. They are then kept 

 in a cabinet drawer made to fit them, and arranged in 

 alphabetical order, in groups, just as a library card 

 index is arranged. Other blank sheets of the same 

 size are used for pasting up catalog descriptions, news- 

 paper notices and everything else referring to varieties. 

 If a letter is received telling the history of some plum, 

 or giving notes of its behavior, the letter is slipped into 

 an envelope and mounted on a sheet in the same way. 

 Photographs, half-tone engravings, and everything 

 else of interest, goes into the same cabinet, so that 

 all the notes on Wickson, Spaulding or Miner can be 

 found in a moment and all in the same place. 



The varieties are arranged by groups, following 

 the system of classification used in this book. 



The same form is also made up in notebook style 

 for field use. 



The determination of the correct name for a 

 variety is sometimes a matter of considerable difficulty. 

 A simple, stable, unequivocal nomenclature is of very 

 great importance to scientific pomology, yet it is a 

 branch of study which has been sadly neglected by 

 the horticulturists. 



The first necessity is that a simple system of rules 

 must be agreed upon; for, though the fundamental 

 rules of nomenclature are really axiomatic, their appli- 

 cation may vary somewhat in detail. Most of the rules 

 generally advocated are merely suggestions for nam- 

 ing new fruits. This is true of the first three out of 

 the four rules now on the statute books of the Ameri- 

 can Pomological society. The actual practice of the 

 present-day working horticulturists, however, is cer- 

 tainly better represented by the so-called "Lazy club 

 rules," proposed for discussion by the Horticulturist's 

 Lazy club of Cornell university. These rules have no 



