PREFACE. 



Beurre Dore, Beurre d'Anjou, Beurre" d'Or, Beurre d'Am- 

 bleuse, Beurre d'Amboise, Poire d'Amboise, Isambert, Red 

 Beurre, Bern-re" du Roi, and Golden Beurre', White Doyenne", 

 Doyenne Blanc, Beurre Blanc, Bonneante, Saint Michael, 

 Carlisle, Citron de Septembre, Kaiserbirne, Poire a Courte 

 Queue, Poire de Limon, Poire de Neige, Poire de Seigneur, 

 Poire Monsieur, Valencia, and White Beurre'. Here is a 

 list of 28 kinds as the purchaser supposes, but when the trees 

 come to bear, he finds to his great disappointment and mor- 

 tification that he has only two sorts, viz. the Brown Beurr^, 

 and the White Doyenne. 



With special reference to the correction of this evil, soon 

 after the publication of the Society's ca^logue, the Pomolo- 

 gical Magazine appeared in monthly numbers, with ample 

 descriptions, and embellished with beautiful coloured plates; 

 but the expense necessarily attendant on its publication, has 

 prevented, in a great degree, its circulation among those for 

 whose use such a work ought to have been principally adap- 

 ted, the Gardener and the humble cultivator of his own 

 soil. As a specimen of art, however, the beauty of its typo- 

 graphy and engravings renders it a suitable ornament for the 

 library of the wealthy patron of horticultural science. But 

 the confusion in the nomenclature still existed, the little 

 that had been done, serving only to make the confusion more 

 manifest. 



There was wanted a union of botanical science and prac- 

 tical experience to take hold of the subject, to simplify and 

 arrange the heterogeneous mass: to describe and classify 

 fruits of real worth ; and with unsparing hand to lop off re- 

 dundancies, and banish forever, if possible, the very names, 

 (however pompous and high sounding) of fruits compara- 

 tively worthless. This has been done in the work now pre- 

 sented to the American public, in which the valuable kinds 

 of fruit are arranged, classified, and described in such a man- 

 ner as to be readily known and distinguished ; and worth- 

 less or inferior varieties having been rejected, one of the least 

 merits of the work is that, the amateur can readily make a 

 selection of different varieties, for a large or small garden, 

 with a certainty of getting fruits of real value, and such kinds 

 only, as he may wish to cultivate. 



The well known abilities of Mr. Lindley for a work of 

 this nature, pointed him out as the most suitable person for 

 undertaking it. The task has been accomplished (as the 

 reader will perceive) in a masterly manner. 



