142 Western Seedling Fruits. 



thority of some cultivator in the West, and we have also 

 read the statement in the Western Reserve Magazine, that 

 it is a native of Connecticut, and was carried West fifty years 

 ago. 'I'he letter of Mr. Putnam, which we confess we are 

 so dull as not to wholly comprehend, proves, so far as it 

 proves any thing, that Mr. Downing was in error, and to our 

 mind it proves nothing else. What the writer has "often 

 heard" for fifty years, took place fifty years previous, or 

 " quite a century ago," when Gen. Israel Putnam found it 

 while crossing the country in Connecticut, will have hut 

 little weight in establishing a name. It is to us far more 

 probable that Gen. Putnam carried this variety to Connecti- 

 cut from the vicinity of Boston, at the time he resided in 

 Cambridge, attached to the army. The fact, that the Put- 

 nam russet, so called, is found in the West in company with 

 the Rhode Island greening, and other New England apples, 

 as stated by our correspondent, Mr. Humrickhouse, (XI. 

 p. 444,) and the still more important fact, that no fruit is 

 knovni in Connecticut under such a name, where it was so 

 long cultivated on the farm of Gen. Putnam, are enough to 

 convince all that it is no other than the Roxbury russet ; and, 

 further, the additional fact that the name cannot be found in 

 one of the catalogues of the most intelligent nurserymen in 

 the county, east or west, shows how well satisfied they have 

 been of its true name. Mr. Ernst, and other cultivators are 

 well aware, that many of our Eastern apples, cultivated in 

 the fertile soils of the West, assume a larger size and fairer 

 appearance, quite sufficient to give them the character of 

 difierent varieties. 



And, lastly, of the origin of the Stone pear. When Mr. 

 Ernst had the kindness to send us a tree of this variety in 

 1844, we were so pleased with the description he gave of it, 

 that, in the autumn of that year, we inserted all the buds we 

 could get from a small tree, in order to disseminate so good 

 an American seedling; last autumn one fruit of the Stone 

 pear was presented for exhibition before the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society, from a gentleman in Beverly, 

 Mass., to whom our correspondent sent the original tree. 

 The committee were unanimous in the opinion that it would 

 prove to be the Old Chelmsford pear, well known and gen- 



