54 Uniform Nomenclature of Fruits. 



It were much better, that things should be permitted to re- 

 main in statu quo^ than that they should be attempted to be 

 set right, upon any grounds or considerations however plau- 

 sible, short of actual inspection and comparison. Other 

 grounds and considerations may give rise, reasonably enough, 

 to doubt and to suspicion. This rule alone can infallibly 

 solve them. No authority ought to be considered as entitled 

 to any weight, unless this has been the process, by which its 

 decisions have been formed. 



Third : That where a synonyme is detected, a return shall 

 be had, at once, to the original name. 



Some conventional standard, by which to determine the 

 name a variety is to bear, is surely a desideratum. A conve- 

 nient and certain, as well as a just rule, is here furnished. 

 No one is better entitled to have his name for a fruit adhered 

 to, than he who produced, or first described, or introduced it 

 to notice — and if the fruit be an old variety, which has been 

 cultivated time out of mind, let the old name be by all means 

 restored. A few have had recourse to authority upon this 

 point — the authority of the London Horticultural Society. 

 No authority, merely as such, is better. As worthy co-labor- 

 ers in the work, none have gone beyond, or contributed more 

 " to bring order out of confusion," in the arrangement of the 

 nomenclature of fruits. Their success is hailed with satis- 

 faction, and their decisions are received with deference. In 

 most cases, and until the contrary is shewn, we need not hes- 

 itate to adopt them ; in some, the weight of testimony, in 

 the opposing scale, may oblige us to reject them. Indeed, 

 Mr. Robert Thompson, and the savans of the society, must 

 themselves act upon some fixed principles, and what are 

 they, if they be not the rules here insisted on. There can 

 be no doubt, that both he and they are open to and will most 

 gladly receive all the aid that may be rendered them, and all 

 the information that may be communicated to them, touch- 

 ing the true name of any variety, not only towards the for- 

 mation of future judgments, but towards the correction of 

 past errors. 



Fourth : That, in case of detected misnomer, if the fruit, 

 after full trial and examination, be deemed worthy of being 

 retained in cultivation and be an unnamed variety, he who 



