PREFACE. V 



confusion which has existed in this respect in this branch of 

 Horticulture. The same fruit has been known in different 

 countries, and in different sections of the same country, by 

 different names, and hence it very frequently happens that 

 the nurseryman who may be applied to, knows not what 

 his customer means, even when he thinks himself very pre- 

 cise in naming the variety ; and the purchaser, with the 

 catalogue in his hand, is unable to select from the names 

 before him the fruit which he is anxious to obtain. 



In this respect the volume now in the hands of the reader 

 has done much towards correcting this enormous evil, and 

 we anticipate the day as not far distant when — the work 

 of Lindley being the standard both in the old world and the 

 new — this babel-like confusion will, in a great measure if 

 not entirely, cease to exist. 



As nearly allied to this merit of our author, we raav 

 mention his determined rejection of worthless and inferior 

 fruits. Far from being actuated by that paltry ambition 

 which seeks to swell the size of a book by incorporating 

 therein every thing that has been seen or heard of, not to 

 say tasted, he rigidly adheres to the principle of describing 

 and thus seeking to perpetuate such fruits only as have at 

 least one or more good qualities to recommend them. In 

 the present edition we have been, governed by the same 

 principle ; and with the exception of a ^qw that we have 

 not had time fully to describe and verify, have added des- 

 criptions of all the truly valuable fruits that have been in- 

 troduced, or that have originated among us since the 

 publication of the former edition. So iliat while on the 

 one hand nothing worthless has found a place, we have 

 omitted none that are truly valuable, and he who takes 

 our edition of Lindley for his guide, will not be imposed 

 upon by mere names, however pompous or high-sounding. 



The exceeding pertinency of our author's'clescriptions, 

 his accuracy and strictly correct phraseology, in which he 

 exceeds all others who have written upon thV subject, /aa7e 

 jprz/7.cg2?5— constitute another strong claim to the gratitude 

 alike of the amateur and the practical cultivator. By strict 

 attention to the peculiarities of any variety herein described, 

 brief as many of the descriptions are— the reader will be, 

 if not in all cases, enabled, at once, to call any fruit he may 

 meet with by its proper name, in no danger of being impos- 



