PREFACE. 



This establishment was founded by William Prince, the grandfather of William R. Prince, the present 

 senior proprietor, and the entire lives of three successive generations have been devoted to its advancement* 

 It being but eight miles from the city of New- York, with a steamboat and stages making several trips daily 

 between the two places, it combines every advantage that would.be possessed by a city location ; and an office 

 is also established in the city to expedite its business. 



The Proprietors, in tendering to the public this new Descriptive Catalogue, (34th edition) with reduced 

 prices, desire to state that they have an immense stock of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, &c, of large si2e 

 and all of healthy and vigorous growth. They also have trees of all the smaller sizes suitable for young 

 Nurseries and for distant transmission where transportation is expensive. The establishment contains at the 

 present period more than a million of Trees and Plants, and the Proprietors are willing to enter into liberal 

 arrangements as to prices with all such persons as desire large quantities of trees, &c, and to those proprie- 

 tors of Nurseries who wish to extend their collections, and such other persons as may wish to establish new 

 Nurseries, they will make liberal disccunts from the usual rates. But while on the one hand we offer our 

 productions at the lowest rates, we insist on the payment (if not in cash,) being made perfectly sure to us by 

 such draft or note as is undoub ed. Any persons who are desirous to act as Agents in towns where no 

 agency at present exists, will please communicate their views with regard thereto. 



Those who were in correspondence with the Establishment, from 1820 to 1836, will have perceived by their 

 written communications therewith during the last two years, that the active correspondent of that era has 

 again taken the helm and returned to his first love— the Vegetable Kingdom— and they will also perceive that 

 in resuming his position, he is animated with the same spirit and zeal in this pleasurable pursuit, which he 

 formerly manifested. The decease of his estimable parent, the late Win. Prince, rendered this course indis- 

 pensable, at the same time that feelings of duty, inclination and interest tended to the same result. During 

 the last years of the life of the late Proprietor, he, from advanced age, found it indispensable to confide very 

 much to the superintendents he employed, but under tbe present Proprietors nothing is done except with their 

 personal supervision, and all correspondents may rely on the utmost precision, exactitude and liberality in the 

 fulfilment of their commands. 



In the arrangement of the present Catalogue we have made free use of the knowledge and information we 

 possess as to the qualities of the respective fruits, and we have instituted such a discrimination as cannot fail 

 to be of immense importance to &11 cultivators who are solicitous of making judicious selections. 



In order that the benefits resulting from the present advanced stage of Pomological knowledge mav be 

 generally diffused, the utmost pains have been taken to comprise in out Catalogues, ample descriptions of the 

 respective varieties of Fruits, &c, and it will be perceived at a glance, that no similar publication has ever ap- 

 peared, that can bear arty comparison in point of extent and accuracy with the present edition in*this respect. 

 These descriptions have been mostly derived from an inspection of the fruits in the extensive specimen 

 grounds of this establishment, and the young trees in the Nurseries connected therewith are propagated from 

 the same specimen trees from which the descriptions were made- The valuable Catalogue of the London 

 Horticultural Society has furnished collateral aid, and to our estimable friend, the late Robert Manning, and to 

 Judge George Hoadley, Messrs. William Kenrick, Andrew Lackey Junior, S. C. Rildreth and others we 

 are also indebted for an exchange of information. 



The fruit trees are either grafted or inoculated, and are propagated from such European and American kinde 

 as have acquired a well merited celebrity, the whole collection of which has recently undergone a most careful 

 revision, and the selections have been made with great care and attention. Every precaution is taken which 

 is necessary to preserve the different varieties perfectly distinct, and all the Peach and other trees are perfectly 

 healthy and free from disease. Many persons are apt to purchase trees without regard to any point but their 

 cheapness, and not unfrequently, after the toil and expense of years, find them, when they arrive at bearing 

 absolutely worthless. Others who regard the price only, pay no attention to the size and vigor of the trees' 

 and consequently sacrifice many years uselessly before their orchards come into bearing. The strongest 

 proofs the Proprietors can give the public of their anxiety to guard against misconception, are the precise 

 descriptions contained in the Treatise recently published and in the present Descriptive Catalogue, by the means 

 of which every person, however ignorant on the subject, can make his selections judiciously, and also ascer- 

 tain if he has been deceived. 



In regard to the identity of the various kinds of fruit, the Proprietors do not pretend to a perfect infallibility, 

 but they do constantly aim at that point, and therefore if an inadvertent error occasionally arise, it is because 

 their unwearied scrutiny has not been able to guard against it. 



We do claim, however, for our establishment the prerogative of superior accuracy, arising from our know- 

 ledge, skill and attention, and especially so in the Fruit Department, which is by far the most liable to error. 

 It is quite the vogue for the Proprietors of small Nurseries and sometimes for thoughtless individuals, to en- 

 deavor to cover their own ignorance by railing against and decrying the accuracy of the older and larger 

 establishments, which only serves to show that envy and malice are not entirely obliterated by the culture~of 

 Fruits and Flowers, and also that some people are silly enough to believe that a physician will poison his 

 own patients. 



In reference to this point, we have to state that the great collection of American Fruits in the London 

 Horticultural Society's Garden was obtained from our Establishment, and they have sustained the test of 20 

 years' experience, and we now insert an extract from a letter recently received from Judge George Hoad- 

 ley, of Ohio, a gentleman of untiring zeal, and pre-eminent in Pomological knowledge, viz: 



"Injustice to your establishment I think I ought to say, that since 18321 have received from your father 

 and yourself above 350 different varieties of Fruit Trees. A large proportion of them have produced fruit, 

 probably over 300. I have watched their progress with the utmost caie, preserviug a record of the location 

 of every tree and examining the fruit with the ^;incipal Engl sh and American authors before me. Thus far 

 I have ascertained only 5 misnomers. There are 5 more which I yet consider doubtful." 



