4 PREFACE. 



by the kind of type. For example, the Khode Island Green 

 ing, with a quality at least one notch below the highest, is 

 given in large capitals on account of its productiveness, 

 value, and wide reputation. On the other hand, the Dyer, 

 greatly its superior in flavor, but deficient in bearing quali- 

 ties, is in small capitals. Again, the Amire Joannet pear 

 is marked in italics, for its unequalled earliness, while the 

 Rousselet de Rheims, far excelling it in quality, but ripen- 

 ing in the thickest of the pear season, is rejected as value- 

 less. These distinctions are more particularly pointed out 

 on pages 112 and 115. 



No little embarrassment arose in deciding upon the pre- 

 cise character to assign to some sorts, more especially with 

 those doubtful fruits which seemed to approach or rest upon 

 the boundary lines between these successive classes. In 

 this difficulty, however, the author has been freely and 

 generously assisted by several of the most eminent and 

 skilful pomologists in different parts of the Union ; and the 

 variations wrought in fruits by soil, climate, culture, and 

 even by the time of gathering and mode of ripening, have 

 not b<;en overlooked. 



The author cannot close these prefatory remarks without 

 offering his grateful acknowledgments to those who have 

 at different times so liberally aided him in this work, and 

 whose names are referred to upon its pages ; among whom 

 more especially he feels bound to mention the names of 

 Marshall P. Wilder, of Boston; Samuel Walker, of 

 Roxbury; Robert Manning, of Salem; Charles Downing, 

 of Newburgh ; Dr. William D. Brinckle, of Philadelphia ; 

 Thomas S. Pleasants, of Petersburgh, Va. ; A. H. Ernst, 

 of Cincinnati ; and Dr. John A. Kennicott, of Northfield, 

 Illinois. He is also eminently indebted to his father David 

 Thomas, of Aurora, N. Y. 



