208 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



deavoring to cfTect, is the suppression from the catalogues 

 throughout our country of all long, improper, indelicate, irrel- 

 evant, ostentatious, and superfluous titles, and to prevent an}' 

 such appellations being hereafter applied to some of the most 

 beautiful objects which the earth has ever brought forth. 



The}' desire to suppress all roj'al titles such as Emperor, King, 

 or Prince ; all political titles such as President, or Governor ; all 

 military titles such as General, Colonel, or Captain ; all indelicate 

 names like Hog-pen, Sheep-nose, or Big Bob ; all ostentatious 

 names such as Excelsior, Ne Plus Ultra, and Stump the World ; 

 and all long names, of which Doyenne Gris d'lliver Nouveau and 

 Vingt-cinqui^me Anniversaire de Leopold I. are instances. The}' 

 desire also to strike off the hundreds of Beurres and Doyennes 

 from the names of our pears, where it is possible to do so, and 

 hereafter to write simply Anjou, Diel, and Boussock in place of 

 Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre Diel, and Dqyenne Boussock. There are 

 however some instances, such as the old Beurre Gris, Doyenne 

 Blanc, and Doyenne Gris, where the Beurre and Doyenne must be 

 retained, because the varieties bearing them are the original types 

 of certain classes. Fortunately very few of the many pears 

 originated in this country have the term Beurre prefixed — he did not 

 think of more than one ; and did not recollect that Doyenne has 

 ever been applied to an American fruit. The term Beurre (butter) 

 was originally applied to a pear of buttery texture, to distinguish 

 it from one with breaking flesh ; but as all the latter class have 

 now gone out of cultivation (except a few varieties used only for 

 cooking) it has lost its significance, and the sooner it is dropped 

 the better. Doyenne, Bon Chretien, and Calebasse were names 

 designating classes of pears, with reference to form as the chief 

 distinguishing mark; but tliese have never been adopted in naming 

 our American pears. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 about forty years ago established a classification of the forms of 

 pears, of which the circle was the basis, and from this were de- 

 duced, as modifications, the compound forms — ovate, obovate, 

 pyriform — obtuse, acute, and ovate pyriform, etc. This classili- 

 catiou has been adopted by Downing, Thomas, Barry, and 

 other leading authors in their works on fruits ; indeed, no one 

 who pretends to be a pomologist will undertake to describe pears 

 without reference to this classification. 



It is desirable that names of fruits should consist of one word 



