The Canadian Horticulturist. 173 



LETTERS FROM RUSSIA.— VII. 

 Exhibition of Fruits at St. Petersburg. 



N the month of October, 1890, the Imperial Society of 

 Horticulture held an exhibit at St. Petersburg. The de- 

 partment of fruit growing and decorative horticulture was 

 excellently arranged through the efforts of the skilful 

 gardeners who have charge of the well stocked hot-houses 

 in that city, but, on the other hand, the section of fresh 

 fruits was a comparative failure, there being only some forty-two exhibitors. 



The finest fruits were those shown by Polish growers, and particularly those 

 from the Warsaw State Pomological Garden, which received very high commen- 

 dation. All the Polish fruits were correctly named, well formed and large, 

 whereby one would judge that fruit growing in Poland is in a good and prosper- 

 ous condition. The fruits, however, were mostly tender varieties grown under 

 glass, few native sorts being among the exhibits. Among these latter were some 

 pears, and a wanter apple under the name of Glogierowka (of pigeon class). It 

 is a very beautiful apple of excellent flavor and the fruit growers of Warsaw con- 

 sider it to be one of the best of their hardy and productive dessert sorts. 



From Lithuaniax and Western Russia there were very few exhibits, none 

 worthy of special mention. Crimea showed very few fruits from her commercial 

 gardens ; her exhibits were mostly French varieties of pears, peaches, grapes and 

 nuts, which are exported into the northern districts. Of apples there were some 

 very good local varieties of the Synap, and two very beautiful and delicious Cri- 

 mean apples, Gulpembe and Chelebi, scions of which I sent you, also a large 

 filbert, known here as Bomba. 



From Caucasus there was only one exhibitor, who showed some forty-six 

 varieties of apples and twenty-four of pears ; most of these were local kinds. 

 Of pears, one variety attracted everybody's attention on account of its enormous 

 size, the Tash-Armud, a local tartar name. It is an excellent, juicy, autumn pear, 

 of about three pounds weight. Caucasus is little known in pomological circles, 

 and it is interesting to know that many quite new sorts of excellent fruits grow 

 there, some without any culture, and even in its forests. In course of time, this 

 country, owing to its favorable climate, will become one of the principal centres 

 for growing apples and grapes ; even now it exports a large quantity of wine into 

 France. 



The exhibitors of Russian fruits from the northern governments were very 

 few, and from some there were no representatives. In all the exhibits were met 

 such wide spread and popular varieties as the Antonovka, Borovinka (Duchess), 

 Titovka, Aport (Alexander), Anis, etc. These typical kinds are known and 

 distributed throughout the whole of Russia, and have reliable names, but other 



