32 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Esther Conte, Leonine Pinchard, Bergamotte Incomparable, Avocat Nelis, 

 Alexandrine Douillard, Seraphin Ovyn, Anna Auduson, St. Vincent de Paul, 

 Souvenier de Madame Treyvor, Lieutenant Poitevin, President de Page, 

 Duchesse Helene de Orleans, and Maria Louise de Ucles. This list might be 

 farther extended, but this is not thought necessary, as it would be neither 

 safe or judicious to give descriptions or express opinions concerning new varie- 

 ties, from having once seen a few specimens ; to do so would be but adding 

 names to the list ; and yet it has been felt that the omission, in a report of the 

 character of the present, of all mention of these novelties having fruited in 

 this vicinity, and of their existence in collections in the neighborhood of 

 Boston, was hardly justifiable. This mention of them, at least, serves as 

 notice to such as may .wish to increase collections by the addition of new 

 kinds, that such wants may probably be supplied by our own without a resort 

 to foreign nurseries. 



dOf pears of native origin, specimens of three new seedling varieties were 

 presented to the Committee, by Dr. S. A. Shurtleff, of Brooklme, raised by 

 him and being each of the first year of bearing. One named Admiral 

 Farragut, another John Cotton, and the third unnamed. Admiral Farragut was 

 a large pear of obovate form, with a long stem, green in color, flesh fine 

 grained, melting, but not very juicy, subacid. The John Cotton was of 

 medium size, obovate form, tapering towards the stem, skin of a pale yellow, 

 flesh melting, juicy, slightly subacid, and moderately vinous; season of both, 

 middle of September. The unnamed variety was very large, and in shape, 

 color, and character of the flesh, seemed almost a reproduction of the Diel ; 

 its season, November. As has been said above, no reliable judgment can be 

 formed of the value and character of a new fruit from once tasting it, and 

 most especially does this apply to a new seedling pear in its first year of bear- 

 ing, for pears of the first, and even of the first three or four years of bearing, 

 furnish no sure and certain indication of what the variety may eventually 

 prove, after it has by age become fixed and determined ; there being frequently 

 with age an increase of size and a change in the period of ripening or other 

 particulars. All that the Committee then feel justified in saying with respect 

 to these seedlings is, that they, especially the two first named, produced a 

 favorable impression. At the Annual Exhibition, Mr. Clapp had several of his 

 seedlings on the tables, among others was one unnamed, but marked as No. 

 21, that seemed to the Committee to be superior in flavof tothe Clapp's Favorite, 

 though not equal to that variety in size and beauty. 



The winter of 1860-61 was so destructive to the peach, seriously injuring 

 the bearing trees when such were not wholly destroyed, that a full crop of 

 peaches for'the last season was not to be reasonably expected. Yet, where 

 from protection or other favorable circumstances, as was the case in some 

 instances, the effects of the severity of that winter was obviated or diminished, 

 from trees so favored a satisfactory crop of this fruit was obtained. The 



cherry, too, suffered so much in the winter referred to, that not only the crop 



