Retrospective Criticism. 109 



readily, as it is a rule we have adopted, and generally adhered to, of never 

 allowing a person, anonymously to make unjust or personal allusions to 

 another through our pages. Had we read the communication of a sub- 

 scriber as carefully before it went to press, as we did afterwards, we 

 should have stricken out all that portion of it which reflects in any man- 

 ner upon the respectable establishments of Messrs. Prince & Co,, Winter 

 & Co., or Parsons & Co., and inserted only the description of CaroHna 

 Hall. Should, however, either of the other parties feel aggrieved, our 

 pages are open to them as freely as to Messrs. Prince. We think our 

 correspondent is mistaken in the author of the article, and we have taken 

 the liberty to alter the phraseology of one or two sentences. — Ed.'\ 



Beurri Bronzes Pear. Mr. Editor. — Knowing your anxious desire to 

 bring the Magazine to the highest possible degree of perfection, I take the 

 liberty to suggest that the valuable " Monthly Calendar " which it con- 

 tains, would be much more useful to subscribers, if the Magazine was 

 promptly issued on the first of the month ; and that many are waiting 

 with commendable patience for the diary or system for the cultivation of 

 grapes in cold houses, which has been repeatedly promised. 



The pomological articles witli which the Magazine has been enriched, 

 are highly appreciated in this meridian. And by the way — in your ac- 

 count of our annual exhibition of fruits, &c. you call one of the pears 

 " Beurre Bronzee." Can you tell me with what noun understood the 

 adjective "beurre" agrees? If with the word pear (poire) it should 

 have the feminine termination, heurree, as well as bronzee. If, on the 

 other hand, it refers to pear tree (poirier) or, as I have always supposed, 

 with the class (ordre) of pears, the usual (masculine) termination is cor- 

 rectly applied. The London Horticultural Society do not seem to have 

 followed any regular rule in this respect, since in their last catalogue we 

 find Beurre royal, blanc, ^ris, vert, as well as grise, grossc, bronzee, An- 

 glaise, &c.— Yours, E. C. N. H. S. Salem, Jan. 17, 1844. 



[We cannot enlighten our critical correspondent in this respect. Whether 

 beurre refers merely to the word pear (poire,) or to the pear tree as a 

 class (ordre,) we have no authority for stating. But on the supposition 

 that it does refer to the latter, the feminine termination is we doubt not 

 incorrect. In giving the names of pears in our Magazine, we have had a 

 desire to have them all uniform, from year to year ; yet we did not wish 

 to take the responsibility to make them conform to our own ideas. The 

 catalogues of nurserymen cannot be any guide ; neither do we know of 

 any author whom we could well follow. As the best authority, therefore, 

 we have taken the Catalogue of the London Horticultural Society , and 

 though we are aware they do not appear to have been guided by any rule, 

 in the spelling of the names of French pears, we deemed it best to follow 

 it ; choosing rathing to overlook the few grammatical errors which occur, 

 to the danger of confusion by attempting a new nomenclature. — Ed. 



DicEcious Character of Straivbsrries. — Recent articles in your Magazine 

 have unsettled the question, whether the sterility and fertility of certain 

 kinds of strawberry plants, are caused by the complete separation of what 

 are called male and female flowers. In Vol. VIII, p. 259, you have ad- 

 mitted the truth of Mr. Longworth's theory on this point, and cite an in- 

 stance, in which a bed of Hovey's seedling became sterile by being planted 

 remote from any other kind. You have since said (Nov. 1843,) that the 

 bed accidentally failed to produce a crop when at some distance from any 



