Pomological Gossip. 125 



scribed as a new seedling of Van Mons, because it was found 

 in his collection after he died, but we did not know the Van 

 Assene was one of his varieties ; as, however, the former 

 proves to be only the Urbaniste, what confidence can be 

 placed either in his names or descriptions ? If Van Mons 

 named it Van Assene, would it not be as good authority to 

 follow him as Bouvier or Van Houtte ? We think so. If 

 original descriptions and names by the originator of a variety 

 are nothing, where shall we look for correctness in our no- 

 menclature of fruits. Even if the name had been originally 

 wrongly spelt, would not twenty years' usage have claimed 

 for it priority over all others, especially when no two foreign 

 cultivators spell it alike ? In some collections it is Vanaesse, 

 in others. Van Asshe, and in a third, Van Assche, showing 

 conclusively that they know no reliable authority for the 

 name. 



Origin of the Red Russet Apple. — The origin of this 

 variety, with which, however, we have but little acquaint- 

 ance, is thus given in the N. E. Farmer : — " Ten or twelve 

 years ago, the branches of a large natural tree Avere grafted 

 with the Baldwin. This tree stood near a large Roxbury 

 Russet tree, and some of the branches extended into the top 

 of the latter. When the grafted tree began to bear, it was 

 noticed that those branches most remote from the Russet tree 

 bore Baldwins, (like the scions,) and those nearest, a different 

 fruit, which resembled in outward appearance a compound 

 of the Baldwin and Russet. The fruit of the new kind was 

 put by itself, and its characteristics noted. In two or three 

 years its remarkable and valuable properties were clearly 

 perceived. It had its own defined and strongly marked pe- 

 culiarities." 



Every gardener knows the importance of sports, as they 

 are called, and it is a fact as well established in vegetable 

 physiology, that such sports may be perpetuated, as that one 

 fruit can be grafted upon another ; but whether the above is 

 such a case of sporting as usually occurs, we are unable to 

 form an opinion, as the writer states that " the branches 

 nearest the Russet tree bore fruits which were a compound 



