210 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Colonel Henry "\V. "Wilson spoke of the dlfliculty experienced by 

 those unacquainted with the French language, in pronouncing the 

 many French names of pears and other fruits, such as Glout 

 Morceau, Duchcsse d'Angouleme, and Louise Bonne of Jersey ; 

 and the last two are also objectionable on account of their langth. 

 When the Clapp's Favorite pear was introduced it was proposed 

 to name it the Wilder. Such names as Stump-the-World are not 

 a credit to those engaged in the cultivation of fruit, and intelligent 

 persons when the3' hear them ask why they are used, 



Mr. Wilder said, in reference to the Clapp's Favorite pear, that 

 when it was introduced the Massachusetts Agricultural Club de- 

 sired to possess the control of the variety, and give to it his name ; 

 but Thaddeus Clapp, who originated it, preferred to have it 

 dedicated to the famil}' name, and a figui-e of the pear is carved 

 on his monument in Forest Hills Cemetery. 



E. W. Wood, Chairman of the Fruit Committee, said that the 

 Committee were very glad to adopt the change in the nomenclature 

 of fruits on account of the saving of labor to them by the shorten- 

 ing of names. Last autumn he visited the fair of the Housatonie 

 Vallc}' Agricultural Society, where there was the best exhibition 

 of apples he saw during the whole season, but many of the apples, 

 and a majority of the pears, were wrongly named. There was no 

 requirement that a dish of fruit must be rightlj' named to receive 

 a premium. The case was the same at Natick, but at this year's 

 exhibition there it will be required that all fruits shall be correctl}' 

 named, or the}' cannot receive prizes. Persons who visit the ex- 

 hibitions of our Societ}' are becoming more familiar with the 

 names of fruits. " A rose by any other name would smell as 

 sweet," but the speaker did not see how fruits could be intelli- 

 gentl}" cultivated under wrong names. The multiplicity' of names 

 b}' which our fruits are known is sometimes perplexing ; the 

 Baldwin apple has seven synonymes, and Downing describes one 

 variety which has no less than fort}'. In reading the reports of 

 the exhibitions of fruits, sometimes, owing to the multitude of 

 synonymes, we do not know what we are reading about ; and 

 therefore we want uniformity in names. There are seventy 

 varieties of plunis, of which the word "Gage" forms part of the 

 name ; the originator of each hoped to get glory by using the name 

 of Gage. Sometimes there may be a necessity for more than one 

 wold in a name. The speaker approved INIr. Hadwen's suggestion 



