Uniform Nomenclaivre of Fruits. 53 



will continue to exist ; for, as fast as one misnomer is correct- 

 ed, another will spring up from a different quarter, in some 

 of the ways to which allusion has been made. True, we 

 may not expect entirely to banish the evil. That would be 

 too flattering a hope, in a country of the extent of ours. 

 But, though not banished, it may be confined and bounded. 

 Enough may be accomplished for all general purposes, if a 

 few plain principles, which must have suggested themselves 

 to almost every mind at all devoted to this subject, and which 

 some have long acted upon, be but generally received and ad- 

 hered to in time to come. 



First : That every cultivator note the sources from whence 

 his varieties have been obtained ; and where identity of any 

 two or more be suspected, or where misnomer of a kind be 

 suspected, that trees of those kinds be immediately procured 

 by him from other and different sources. 



The propriety of this as a rule is obvious. A mistake may 

 have been made, as is often the case, in the instance of the 

 first trees obtained, and one or the other of the kinds may 

 not have been true to name. This can hardly happen with 

 ALL, when procured and fruited from several sources ; and if, 

 under such circumstances, it does occur with all, it must be 

 held, p7^o hac vice, to establish the fact of identity or misno- 

 mer, and of the existence of a common error. It is not con- 

 clusive, until all the sources, from whence the fruits may be 

 obtained, shall be exhausted. 



Second : That no test but actual inspection and compar- 

 ison of the fruits, shall be regarded as sufficient to determine 

 identity or misnomer. 



Absolute certainty, in the person detecting a synonyme or 

 misnomer, is that which is desired ; and absolute certainty is 

 not attainable in any other way, than by the adoption of this 

 rule. If departed from, we are carried still further seaward. 

 It has been very justly observed by Mr. Loudon, that, "an 

 apple may be distinguished from twenty other apples, all very 

 much alike, when the whole twenty are placed together be- 

 fore the eye ; but any one of the twenty, taken apart, and 

 delineated and described, however perfectly, will hardly pre- 

 sent any marks sufficiently distinctive to be remembered, and 

 by which it may be recognized with any degree of certainty." 



