Thomas's Fruit Culturist. 225 



the strawberry, in which, under the head of "selection of 

 varieties," we find the following : — 



The Duke of Kent and Early Scarlet are among the best very early 

 varieties ; and the Roseberry, Bishop's Orange, Keene's Seedling, and 

 Hovey's Seedling, are known for good quality, large size and productive- 

 ness. The two latter being tender need a covering of straw or chaff, in 

 winter. Hovey's seedling is regarded by many who have cultivated it, as 

 the most desirable of all varieties ; but, as with other new fruits, it should 

 not be exclusively nor very extensively cultivated, till years of trial have 

 thoroughly proved its character and freedom from unforeseen defects, 

 —pp. 171, 172. 



Now here are three errors in this short paragraph : — First, 

 the Duke of Kent scarlet is quite worthless, and has so been 

 marked in the London Horticultural Society's catalogue, 

 where it is set down "third size and second quality," and we 

 discarded it from our collection twelve or fifteen years ago. 

 Second, the Bishop's Orange is not " good quality and large 

 size," being merely "second quality and second size," accord- 

 ing to the same authority ; and we consider it very inferior, as 

 the trusses of fruit have such short stems that the berries can 

 only be found by searching on the ground under the leaves ; 

 but the third and gross error is, that " Hovey's seedling is 

 tender''^ ! It is evident from this that Mr. Thomas never cul- 

 tivated the true variety, or he would not have made such a 

 statement, for one of its greatest qualities is its hardiness — 

 twelve years' experience having never yet enabled us to find 

 a bed of ^'■oung and healthy plants any more injured than the 

 early scarlet or Virginia. 



But why does Mr. Thomas say that " it should not be 

 very extensively cultivated till years of trial have thoroughly 

 proved its character and freedom from unforeseen defects" 7 

 Is he afraid cultivators will find out its merits too soon, and 

 thus have a fine fruit in place of a poor one ? Mr. Thomas 

 does not describe only three or four new and lately intro- 

 duced fruits, of superior quality, throughout the whole book ; 

 but even to these we do not see that he has taken the pains 

 to caution his readers not to cultivate them " till years of 

 trial," &c. We do not know what term of years he would 

 have a fruit like the strawberry under trial ; but for his in- 



VOL. XII. NO. VI. 29 



