PREFACE. 



No ONE can be insensible to the rapid advancement which 

 Pomological science has made, within a short period. By the 

 accession of numerous foreign varieties of fruits, and by the 

 introduction to notice of an immense number of native seed- 

 lings, the small and meagre collections of former years, which 

 might be readily enumerated by dozens, have* no\v accumulated 

 to such an extent, that they are numbered by hundreds. By 

 the labors of Van Mons and his Belgian associates, — of Noisette 

 and his countrymen, — of Knight and other English cultivators, — 

 as well as by the aid of our own amateur and practical Horti- 

 culturists, the well-known fruits of the last century, with a 

 few exceptions, have given way to those of the present: the 

 ameliorating influences of cultivation, assisted by the principles 

 of science, have given to the world a catalogue of Fruits of 

 surpassing excellence. 



But with this great accumulation of kinds, — and along with 

 the multitude of names, — has followed a confusion of nomen- 

 clature which has greatly retarded the general cultivation of the 

 newer and more valuable varieties ; and the labors of the most 

 ardent Pomologists have long been devoted to the attempt to 

 reduce the chaos of names to something like order. Much has 

 already been accomplished. The London Horticultural Society, 

 with all the means at its command, has been foremost in this 

 zealous work ; and the exertions of numerous enthusiastic culti- 

 vators, both at home and abroad, have aided in this laudable 

 enterprise. But there still remains ^ a great deal to be done 

 before Pomology can be rendered anything but an embarrassing 

 and perplexing study. 



To contribute my share towards the accomplishment of this 

 important work, has been the principal object of the publication 

 of the Fruits of America. Having long experienced the disap- 

 pointment ever consequent upon a confused nomenclature, in 

 collecting together all the principal fruits at present known, I 

 have thought I could not better serve the cause of Pomological 

 science, than to attempt a work of this kind, as the most, if 

 not the only, effectual means of arriving at the end in view. 



