IMPROVEMENT. 19 



A similar progress, less in degree, is indicated 

 in the cultivation of the Pear. Tusser speaks " of 

 all sorts;" Parkinson enumerates sixty-four vari- 

 eties ; Miller, eighty ; and Lindley describes one 

 hundred and sixty- two. 



Most of these writers also mention numerous 

 varieties of the Cherry and Plum. 



Gerard describes the early, and the white, red, 

 and yellow peaches, and says there were many 

 others ; Parkinson enumerates twenty-one ; Miller 

 thirty-one; Lindley describes sixty; and in this 

 country, more favorable to the peach than Eng- 

 land, there are probably not less than two or three 

 hundred known and named varieties. 



Eminent advantages have resulted from the ap- 

 plication of scientific principles, by Lindley, Knight 

 and others, in the cultivation of fruit, and in the 

 propagation of improved varieties. Several hun- 

 dred new Pears, some of them of the finest quality, 

 were obtained by Van Mons of Belgium, by a suc- 

 cessive selection of improved seedlings ; and Knight 

 in England has produced some of the finest varie- 

 ties of the Cherry, Plum, and Apple, by a cross 

 fertilization of old sorts. 



One of the greatest difficulties yet remaining 1 , 

 is the confusion in the names of varieties. The 

 very slight shades of difference in many ; the im- 

 possibility of accurately defining these shades in 

 written descriptions ; and the changes produced 



