358 Pojnological Gossip. 



seedlings, whether of strawberries or other fruits, should be 

 carefully tested by those who produce them, before they are 

 trumpeted forth as ''larger, better and more productive," 

 than all others. 



One would hardly suppose that an intelligent cultivator 

 could have credulity enough to be induced to purchase a 

 dozen plants of Newland's Mammoth Alpine, which was 

 hawked about the streets of Boston and other cities a year 

 ago. The fact that it was merely an Alpine strawberry was 

 sufficient to show there could not be much mammoth about 

 it. Yet many individuals, attracted by the flaming adver- 

 tisement and cJiallenge, purchased what they had previously 

 dug up by the barrow load, — the old Wood strawberry ! 



We hope the strawberry committee of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society will make a report on the merits of 

 the varieties of this fruit in general cultivation, and, taking 

 some sort as combining the greatest merit, discard at once 

 all which do not come up to the proper standard of excel- 

 lence. 



Belle d'Orleans Cherry. This is the name of a new 

 French variety which has fruited in the garden of the Hon. 

 M. P. Wilder. It was ripe this year about the same season 

 as the May Bigarreau, and is somewhat larger than that 

 kind ; the skin is of a clear amber, with a pale red cheek ; 

 the flesh juicy, tender, well-flavored and good. It promises 

 to be a good variety, and well worthy of cultivation. 



Bigarreau de Mezel Cherry. Mr. J. Washburn, of 

 Plymouth, exhibited the fruit of this new cherry; the speci- 

 mens were from a young tree, and if of full size, it is only 

 a medium-sized fruit, and in no way worthy of the praise 

 bestowed upon it. The cherries appeared to be some sort 

 of a Bigarreau. 



Bigarreau de Lyon Cherry. — Under this name some 

 very excellent cherries were sent us by our correspondent, 

 Lewis Eaton, president of the Buffalo Horticultural Society. 

 It is a very large black cherry, greatly resembling the New 

 Black Bigarreau, and appears to be a valuable variety. 



