PKEFACE. V 



ficulties attendant upon the undertaking, but its impor- 

 tance, and its growing necessity, were considered sufficient 

 to warrant the attempted innovation. It is hoped that 

 American students of pomoloay will appreciate the eflForts 

 which have been made in their behalf. The formulae which 

 have been adopted may not prove to be the best, but it is 

 believed that they will render great assistance to those 

 who desire to identify fniits ; and that, at least, they may 

 lead to a more perfect classification in the future. 



On the contrary, with these simple formulae, under 

 which the fruits are arranged, the student. has only to de- 

 cide as to which of the sub-divisions his specimen must 

 be refeiTed, and then seek among a limited number for the 

 description that shall correspond to his fruit, and the iden- 

 tification is made out. 



In the systematic descriptions of fruits, the alphabetical 

 succession of the names is used in each sub-division. An 

 earnest endeavor has been made to be minute in the de- 

 tails without becoming prolix. A regular order is ;idopt- 

 ed for considering the several parts, and some new or un- 

 usual characters are brought into requisition to aid in the 

 identification. Some of these characters appear to have \ 

 been strangely overlooked by previous pomologists, 

 though they are believed to be permanent and of consid- 

 erable value in the diagnosis. 



In deciding upon the selection of the names of fruits, the 

 generally received rules of our Pomological Societies have 

 been departed from in a few instances, where good reasons 

 were thought to justify diflfering from the authorities. 

 Thus, when a given name has been generally adopted over 

 a large extent of country, though different from that used 



