THE 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



INTBODUCTION. 



§ I, — SELECTION OF KINDS, ETC. 



In no department of horticulture has greater 

 progress been made within this last quarter of 

 a century, than in the production of improved 

 varieties of fruits, and the superior management 

 of the trees and plants that produce them. In 

 both cases there was ample room for amend- 

 ment. For the former, we are mainly indebted 

 to our Continental neighbours, both, for the 

 numerous fine varieties we have received from 

 them, and also for the impetus the experiments 

 of Dr Van Mons, and other Flemish pomolo- 

 gists, gave to those of this country, in rearing 

 new varieties from seed. For the latter, not 

 only we, but they also, are indebted to the per- 

 severance, skill, and superior intelligence of 

 such ^ men as Eivers, Thompson, Errington, 

 Fleming, Spencer, Harrison, &c, who, carrying 

 out the theories laid down by Lindley, Knight, 

 Hayward, &c, and even establishing new ones of 

 their own, have reduced the science of fruit-tree 

 management to principles founded on reason 

 and a correct physiological basis. Equally great 

 has been the advance in the no less important 

 part of the science, the establishment of a cor- 

 rect nomenclature, for which we were at first 

 under eminent obligations to the Horticultural 

 Society of London, by the publication of their 

 fruit catalogue, in which the names of a vast 

 number of fruits have been determined, by com- 

 parisons drawn from trees grown in their own 

 garden. One of the many names previously 

 given to the same variety in different parts of 

 the kingdom has been selected as the standard, 

 and the others given merely as synonyms. This 

 was a great boon to fruit-growers, and, to a cer- 

 tain extent, raised up a spirit of observation 

 and inquiry amongst them, the advantages of 

 which are so obvious as to require hardly any 

 comment from us. The task was herculean ; 

 and, without the means at command of so im- 

 portant a society, could not have been satisfac- 

 torily carried out. That such a first effort 



should have attained a perfect result, it would 

 be unreasonable to expect. It, however, so far 

 paved the way for others to complete a task so 

 creditably begun. The publication of the "Pomo- 

 logical Magazine," under the auspices of that So- 

 ciety, the " Guide to the Orchard," by Mr G. 

 Lindley, and "The Orchard" by ourselves, sub- 

 sequently followed ; and these three works have 

 done more than all the others that preceded 

 them to render the nomenclature of fruits in- 

 telligible to general readers. 



The pomological work projected by Mr R. 

 Hogg, if equal to the excellent specimen he has 

 given us in his " British Pomology," which in- 

 cludes the apple only — and we have no doubt it 

 will be so — will, from the published material at 

 his command, collected by others, and his own 

 thorough practical knowledge of the subject, 

 place pomological nomenclature in Britain on a 

 basis superior to that of any other country in 

 the world. 



Following up such examples, we have given 

 copious descriptive lists of fruits. Our object, 

 however, has been directed more to a selection 

 of the best kinds suited to the variable climate 

 of Britain, and also to its different localities, 

 than to any attempt at a general description, 

 which, in a work like the present, would be 

 quite out of place. Our descriptions are brief, 

 but, we hope, sufficiently clear for all purposes 

 of practical cultivation ; and our recommenda- 

 tions only given where experience, during a long 

 and extensive practice in various parts of the 

 kingdom, justifies them. We have throughout 

 steadily kept in view the exclusion of bad and 

 inferior sorts, and passed unnoticed some few new 

 varieties, with regard to the merits and defects 

 of which we have not as yet had an opportunity 

 of satisfying ourselves. The advantage of giv- 

 ing the synonyms must be apparent to most, as 

 on looking over nursery catalogues, where too 

 often synonyms are disregarded, a person about 

 to form a selection of fruits has to wade through 

 the list of names, and probably, after fixing on 



