iv PREFACE. 



ately following the names that are adopted. The Catalogue will 

 thus shew at a glance not only of what name any other is a 

 synonym, but also what all the synonyms are of every name that 

 is adopted as the one which it is proper to employ. 



3. When a sort has been once possessed by the Society, and is 

 now lost, the name appears without any number being prefixed : 

 so that an indication is thus afforded of the kinds, which the 

 Society requires for the completion of the collection. 



4. By columns and abbreviations, the meaning of which is 

 explained under every different kind of fruit, a large number of 

 the most important characters, by which the varieties are distin- 

 guished, has been compressed into a very small compass. Thus 

 in Apples the following line, 



511 Oslin . . | p. y. | roundish | 2 | T | 1 | Aug. Sept. 



signifies that the Oslin is a pale yellow apple of a roundish figure, 

 of a middling size, used for the dessert, of the first quality, and 

 ripening in August and September. To these abbreviations a 

 few useful remarks have often been added in a separate column. 

 By such means it is hoped that a considerable body of prac- 

 tically important information will have been introduced. 



It will be remarked that the abbreviations, &c. have not been 

 made use of in regard to every sort that is enumerated. In such 

 instances no certain information has been yet collected at the 

 Garden with respect to those varieties the columns of which are 

 blank ; owing either to the trees not having fruited, or to the 

 variety having been lost, or to inaccuracies having been dis- 

 covered in the names of the plants received at the Garden. 

 These inaccuracies have taken place to an extent of which no one, 

 who has not personally inspected the progress of investigation, 

 can form an idea, and have caused more embarrassment than all 

 other causes taken together. It would in many cases have been 

 easy to have filled up the blanks from books, or such MSS. of 



