PREFACE TO THE SECOND REVISION. 



THE second revision of the FRUITS AND FRUIT-TREES OF AMERICA, 

 originally written by my lamented brother, in 1845, has been under- 

 taken with very great hesitancy ; but the extended increased interest in 

 fruit-culture, and demand for this work, have seemed to require of me 

 such aid in its construction, commensurate with the progress of the age, 

 as I could command. 



I have therefore, by the assistance of numerous friends in all parts of 

 the States and the Canadas, gathered together material, and embodied, 

 enlarged, and revised the work, trusting that the desire to assist, aid, and 

 continue the advancement of fruit-culture may be taken as the incentive 

 which has guided my labors ; and that imperfections will not be too 

 freely commented upon, without careful thought of the time and obser- 

 vation, etc., requisite in deciding many points in Pomology. The cor- 

 recting or deciding relative to the various names under which one fruit 

 is known in different sections, was originally a feature of great diffi- 

 culty, even when they were brought together and grown in one garden, 

 as by the London Horticultural Society ; but when this has to be done 

 with the varieties spread over such a wide territory, and with so many 

 varied climates and soils as ours, the task is one of no light character. 

 At the first writing of this book the accumulation of names was such 

 as to then cause the study of Pomology to be counted as an embarrass- 

 ing one. What then shall we say of it now, when the list of names has 

 been more than trebled? New varieties have sprung into existence 

 with the magic rapidity belonging to everything of our country ; but, 

 unfortunately, regard has not always been had to the qualifications 

 which should have been by them possessed ere their introduction to 

 our lists; and at this day I may safely say that not perhaps one in 

 thirty of the recent introductions, for the past twenty years, will bear' 

 the criticism of a first-class fruit. 



In my revision I have endeavored to keep as near as possible the 

 simple arrangement of the original, omitting the arrangement of classes, 

 and periods of ripening, and placing the whole alphabetically in order,, 

 trusting to the text description to give the information sought by the 

 reader. The nomenclature of the London Horticultural Society in the 

 original edition has been retained, and, so far as known, I have con- 

 tinued the original name by which each fruit was first described, as its 

 true name, appending all others as synonyms. 



In the first edition of this work the names of authors who had 



