260 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



disposition peculiar to itself; and in respect to traits pos- 

 sessed in common, even these may be classified. In every 

 description there should be, at least, an attempt at giving 

 these various nursery peculiarities. It canngt be done, as 

 yet, with any considerable accuracy. Fruit-trees have not 

 yet been minutely studied. A florist can give you a thou- 

 sand times more minute and special information hi respect 

 to the peculiar habits and wants of his flowers, than an 

 orchardist can of his trees. Doubtless, it is easier to do it 

 in plants which have a short period ; whose whole life passes 

 along before the eye every season, than in plants whose vn-y 

 youth outlasts ten generations of Dahlias, Pansies, Balsams, 

 etc. But that only makes it the more important that we 

 should be up and doing. Let no work be regarded as clas- 

 sic which does not take into its design the most thorough 

 enunciation of all the peculiarities of fruits, and pomology 

 will receive more advantage in ten years, than it could by a 

 hundred years of rambling, unregulated, discursive descrip- 

 tions. 



The ability which Mr. D. has shown as a horticultural 

 writer, his industry in collecting materials for this, his last 

 work ; the skill which he has shown himself to possess in 

 describing fruits, give the public a right to expect that he 

 will " go on unto perfection ;" and if Mr. D. will adopt a 

 higher standard and set out with a design of a more sys- 

 tematic description of fruits, every liberal cultivator in the 

 land will be glad to put at his disposal whatever of minute 

 observation he may possess. 



BUCKWHEAT is a corruption rather than a translation of 

 the Saxon word Buckwaizen, the first syllable signifying 

 beech, the tree of that name, whose nut the kernel of the 

 grain so much resembles in shape. The grain, therefore, 

 might be properly called beech-wheat. 



