A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE OF POMOLOGY, 423 



sides it is of no less interest, and in the history of strawberry literature 

 it forms a starting-point of the utmost value. 



In the nineteenth century the pomological literature of different 

 countries entered upon more independent courses, and it will therefore 

 be more convenient now to deal with each country separately, from 

 1800 to the present day. 



LITERATURE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

 German, Austrian, and Hungarian Works. 



As the contributions of German authors have not yet been 

 mentioned, it will be well to recall first the earlier works, i.e. those 

 produced before 1800. In the Middle Ages, Germany was too much 

 occupied in the rivalries of churches militant to give time for developing 

 the peaceful arts. It is not surprising, therefore, that the pomo- 

 logical literature of those days is scanty, and it is not until the 

 nineteenth century that such a literature really began. Rare books, 

 of course, appeared from time to time, such as the " Oenographia " 

 of Fr. Helbach, which was published in 1604, but the literature even of 

 the eighteenth century was very largely based upon foreign authors. 

 Such were, for instance, the " Neue Gartenlust '* of Hesse, published 

 in 1714, which was largely based on Merlet's " Abrege des Bons 

 Fruits/' and the " Baumgartnerei " of 1763, adapted from Le Gendre. 



The first native work of real importance is the " Pomona Fran- 

 conica " of J. Mayer, pubHshed in three quarto volimies at Niirnberg, 

 1776-1801. The 253 coloured illustrations, though rather crude, are 

 nevertheless very useful, and a French translation of the text is given 

 in parallel columns. This work was doubtless pubUshed in a Hmited 

 edition only, and is now extremely scarce in a complete state. 



The year 1780 saw the publication of the first serious attempt 

 at a classification of fruits. The author was H. L. Manger, Inspector 

 of Buildings to the Queen of Prussia. The book, " Vollstandige 

 Anleitung zu einer systematischen Pomologie,'' is a folio of 192 pages, 

 and contains two plates illustrating his classification by form. In the 

 tabular arrangement, resembling that adopted later by Thompson 

 in his R.H.S. Catalogue of Fruits, and in the historical notes, there is 

 much of great interest. Manger was the first of the great school of 

 systematic pomologists which gave Germany so prominent a place in 

 the early part of the nineteenth century. 



An Austrian pomology of importance was the " Pomona Austriaca " 

 of JoHANN Kraft, pubHshed at Vienna in 1790-1796, 2 vols., with 

 200 fine coloured plates. This is a work of great value, especially for 

 the South European varieties of fruits. 



The opening years of the nineteenth century saw a remarkable 

 expansion of a native literature, and the interest in fruit culture was 

 greatly stimulated by the works of Christ, Diel, and Dittrich. The 

 first named, Christ, was a country parson, and his works were mostly 

 of a popular nature and did much to encourage the farmer and small 



