14 Observations upon the Season of 1849. 



will show the variety of flowers and fruits which are culti- 

 vated by our principal nurserymen. 



HORTICULTURAL LITERATURE. 



The year has been one of great dearth in literary produc- 

 tions. The only works have been a new edition of Thomas's 

 American Fruit Culturist, enlarged and improved, which 

 we shall notice in our next ; Transactions of the New York 

 State Agricultural Society^ for 1848 ; Cole's Aonerican Fruit 

 Book ; a Practical Treatise on the Management of Fruit 

 Trees, by Geo. Jacques ; and three numbers of our Fruits 

 of America, (Nos. 7, 8, and 9.) The three others, completing 

 volume one, will appear in the course of the spring. 



Art. II. Observations upon the Season of 1849, with a 

 Brief Review of some of the more Remarkable Varieties of 

 Fruit ivhich have been Introduced or Exhibited during the 

 Year. By Hon. J. S. Cabot, Salem, Mass. 



A DISPOSITION to exaggerate the present seems to exhibit 

 itself, more especially with respect to those occurrences of 

 the seasons that appear, at the time, a departure from their 

 usual routine. We are apt to think and speak of any great 

 degree of heat or cold, moisture or dryness, as very unusual 

 events, when a cursory examination of a record of the 

 weather, for but a limited number of years, would probably 

 show such as of constant recurrence. But making all due 

 allowance for the manifestation of this disposition with 

 respect to the vicissitudes of its seasons, the past year may 

 properly be considered remarkable, — as to these vicissitudes 

 have generally been attributed, either justly or unjustly, 

 some very marked and unusual effects ] and it has become a 

 subject of inquiry, not uninteresting to horticulturists at 

 least, to what one of its characteristics, or to what combina- 

 nation of its peculiarities, these eff"ects should be ascribed. 

 The absence of a sufficient number of facts forbids any very 



