4 Retrospective View of the 



seasons ; but many new fruits have been noticed in the de- 

 tails of our Foreign Tour, and all the new pears which 

 have fruited the past year will be found enumerated in 

 the weekly reports of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 

 ciety. Our absence in the fall of 1844 prevented us from 

 making memorandums of new kinds, but the last favorable 

 season has enabled us to make good the deficiency, and we 

 shall have a fund of information for the present volume. 

 The Yan Mons Leon de Clerc pear, was exhibited in great 

 perfection the past autumn; we ourselves had specimens 

 measuring five inches in length, and weighing nearly a 

 pound. ■ It is unquestionably one of the most delicious pears, 

 but we think it will require a favorable season to be found 

 in its greatest perfection. The Dunmore pear has not ripened 

 any specimens from which a correct estimate of its merits 

 could be made. The Vicompte de Spoilberg, one of Van 

 Mons's pears, and highly prized by him, has proved to be 

 one of the finest varieties, ripening from December to Febru- 

 ary. Specimens of the Lawrence pear from the original tree, 

 exhibited for the second time, have fully sustained its merits 

 as a first rate winter pear. Bezi Veteran, Epine Dumas, 

 Comtesse de Lunay, Edwards's Elizabeth, and Las Canas, 

 are also varieties whose excellence the past season, will ena- 

 ble us to recommend them for every good collection of pears. 

 For some account of new apples, we must refer the reader 

 to the articles of Mr. Beecher and Mr. Humrickhouse, in 

 which some western seedlings are enumerated, which have 

 a high reputation. Some new apples have been presented 

 before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, but only a 

 very few have been recognized as of first rate quality. A 

 late fall apple, coming in after the Porter, is yet a great 

 desideratum. In the early part of the last volume, we gave 

 an engraving of the Jefferson Plum; in the autumn, we had 

 an opportunity to test its qualities, and found it fully equal 

 to Mr. Downing's description. In the smaller fruits, the 

 Fastolff" raspberry holds a prominent place ; it has thus far 

 proved a very large and superior variety. Our new seed- 

 ling strawberry, the Boston Pine, has been considerably dis- 

 tributed, and its remarkable qualities will soon become gen- 

 erally known ; a new seedling has also been offered for sale 



