364* JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



recognising the value of the quality of fruit, and of accuracy in 

 the names of sorts, spared no pains or expense in determining 

 and publishing an account of the several kinds of fruit-trees 

 which the garden then possessed. Fruit enters into and forms 

 a serious condition in the daily life and enjoyment of most 

 people in these islands, and indeed over the whole world, and 

 the Society was an ultimate court of appeal to those who were 

 interested in fruit culture, and who were somewhat uncertain as 

 to the names and kinds which they were in the habit of placing 

 on their tables for daily consumption. If they were not 

 entirely satisfied with the quality, those who were in any way 

 connected with the Society, by themselves or their friends, 

 had an infallible authority to refer to in the Eoyal Horticul- 

 tural Society and its leading pomologist, Mr. Robert Thomp- 

 son. Now, the Society still possesses the fruit garden and an 

 authority, and in this particular it differs very much from the 

 societies which have been lately formed for the extension of the 

 knowledge of fruit ; it has the gardens and the fruit-trees, and it 

 has added, and does add, to its collection of fruit-trees all those 

 sorts which may in any way be of service to the fruit-grower of 

 the present day. It is hardly possible to suppose that the 

 catalogue of 1842, which is the last comprehensive fruit 

 catalogue printed by the Society, is quite in a line with the 

 development which has taken place since that time ; but a 

 good fruit has such an exceedingly long life, that a very large 

 percentage of the fruits there described are still deservedly the 

 favourites of the dessert-table and the kitchen of the present day, 

 and I venture to hope that the Eoyal Horticultural Society will 

 be found ready and anxious to maintain the high position which 

 it has always held. In the matter which I have to speak about 

 to-day, the fruit catalogue of the Society contains interesting 

 information of altogether nearly 600 Peaches and Nectarines, 

 with their synonyms, the determination of the synonyms being 

 a very arduous work, and really meaning the cultivation of many 

 sorts absolutely useless except for this purpose. The early 

 Peaches named in this catalogue of 1842 are not many, and if by 

 early Peaches we are to understand those which ripen in July, only 

 two kinds are given, the Red and the White Nutmeg, the comment 

 of the catalogue being that these sorts have little merit except 

 that of being the earliest. In the beginning of August the Petite 



