



V' y 6 r? t Jt,.. ,f,K- J SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY. - 







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DESCIIIPTION. ^-g) j^/,^^ 



A horticultural description is primarily a delineation of the 

 differences by which horticultural groups are distinguished. 

 By group is meant an assemblage of organisms related in a 

 definite way, as orders, species and varieties. The term, how- 

 ever, is often used to designate intermediate or not regularly 

 recognized divisions. Technically a description must .be a 

 matter of printed,, or possibly written, record. A description 

 should also include, if full and formal, a history and a bibliog- 

 raphy, or at least such parts of these as have been indicated 

 in authoritative writings. 



In most horticultural works, in pomology in particular, a 

 description mainly attempts to set forth differences and to 

 portray a variety, species, or other group, in their relations to 

 co-ordinate forms. It should give the distinctive characters 

 by which one assemblage of organisms is distinguished from 

 another with which it is compared. Such a description is 

 called a differential one. A less common method of descrip- 

 tion is one which comprises all that is known of the plant or 

 groiip under consideration and entirely independent of relation- 

 ship. This full or general description is less needful and less 

 used in horticulture than is the differential one. 



Chaeactees. — In other biological sciences, i. e., botany and 

 zoology, the term character is much used. It signifies the 

 combination of properties and qualities by which a group of 



