458 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



be able to do so this fall. I procured scions of both sorts, and have them 

 under cultivation. No doubt but this is the Pear Mr. D. alludes to, and if 

 so, it ought to be called Cursor'' s Columbus, not Columbia ; but yet we are 

 in the dark about the synonym " St. Michael of Boston Cultivators.'''' This 

 " medium" Pear — is it a distinct sort or a synonym? Certainly the Boston 

 folks ought to know the White Doyenne, or white Butter Pear of Philadel- 

 phia, and, if they do, they would call it so, and not St. Michael, which is a 

 synonym of that sort. These synonyms are confusing things — these mod- 

 ern improvements of the last fifteen years — and while Mr. D. seems to ad- 

 mit that the Surpasse Vimoulouse of Parmentier is the same as the one we 

 claim for Williamson's Tirgalieu, we should be glad to have this St. Michael 

 disposed of one way or other. Is it a distinct sort, or a synonym of some- 

 thing else? I must observe further that the Columbian Yirgalieu of Mr. 

 Cursor cannot be the original New^ York Yirgalieu. The tree is not old 

 enough, probably not more than thirty years, but it is very likely to be a 

 seedling of that sort, and may be very desirable. — Respectfully, your obe- 

 dient servant, Michael Floy, Harlem Nursery, August 2ith, 1846. 



We apprehend there is a misunderstanding in relation to this subject. 

 The Boston cultivators are well aware, that the St. Michael, so called, is 

 the same as the White Doyenn6 of Europe, and the Butter pear of Phil- 

 adelphia, and also supposed to be the A'irgalieu (we doubt the propriety of 

 this mode of spelling, and do not adopt it ourself,) of New York. But 

 long usage has rendered the name of St. Michael so familiar, that, like the 

 Bartlett pear, it is difficult to change it among the mass of the people. 

 With this explanation in relation to this variety, we leave the other ques- 

 tions in the hands of Messrs. Floy and Downing. We would hope, how- 

 ever, that Mr. Floy has not forgotten his intention to test Mr. Cursor's 

 pears this fall, and that he will send us an account of them, particularly of 

 the one called Columbus, which appears io be an entirely new variety. Cox 

 describes a pear which he calls Williamson's Virgoulouse. Is it the same 

 as the Surpasse Virgoulouse ? If so, the latter name should give way to the 

 former. — Ed. 



Art. II. Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Saturday, September 26, 1846. — The Annual Exhibition of Dahlias for 

 premiums took place to-day, and, considering the very unfavorable sea- 

 son, there was a fair display of flowers. Not a sufficient number of 

 stands, however, were put up to obtain all the prizes, some of them having 

 been disqualified, for their very large number of inferior flowers of inferior 

 varieties. We are glad to see the judges have set up some standard, for if 

 the mere putting up twenty-four flowers will obtain a premium, why hun- 

 dreds of cultivators might be competitors. 



From the President of the Society about one hundred flowers, some of 



