DESCRIPTION OF VARIETIES. 233 



are correct, and am positive upon only one point, and that 

 is, there is no list yet published in which there are not 

 more or less errors ; if there were, I would adopt it most 

 cheerfully, and give the author unqualified credit. 



So long as this is the case, it must be apparent that to 

 be sure of the identity of any variety, it will require close 

 observation, and a strict comparison of the best knoT\n 

 characteristics of each. 



This difficulty would not exist to so great an extent 

 as we now find it, if originators of new varieties would 

 give a correct description of their productions. But in- 

 stead of noting the particular points of difference between 

 the new and old kinds, they go off into ecstasies, uttering 

 only poetical allusions to the refreshing enjoyment which 

 the partaker of the ephemeral nectar of their almost celes- 

 tial pets will experience, provided he pays five dollars for 

 a very small vine. 



These difficulties will probably be overcome at some fu- 

 ture time, but we fear that it will not be, so long as the mat- 

 ter is left entirely to individuals. If there is any country 

 that needs an experimental garden, it is the United States 

 We do not require it for the purpose of ascertaining the pro- 

 ductive or other qualities of varieties, because individual 

 growers will determine this for themselves, but we want it 

 for the purpose of determining their identity. This would 

 become an easy matter if we had a place where every origi- 

 nator or introducer of a new variety could send a plant, taken 

 directly from the original, and where it would be kept dis- 

 tinct and become a permanent specimen for future exami- 

 nation and comparison. The depositing of new varieties 

 ii: the public garden should be made compulsory, if not by 

 law at least by custom, and the people might be instruct- 

 ed not to purchase varieties that had not been submitted 

 for experiment. And further, our pomological societies 

 might refuse to recognize any grower who neglected ur 



