434 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



1831, I vol., 90 pp., 42 coloured plates). The great importance of 

 this work lies in its magnificent coloured plates of English apples. 

 There is no work which has depicted so well and fully the native 

 varieties of this country. The descriptions are short, and not very 

 systematic, but too high praise cannot be given to the coloured draw- 

 ings. These were done by Miss Ronalds under her father's direction, 

 and I know of no work where the essential points of difference have 

 so well been brought out, or the colours and textures better suggested. 

 Ronalds was a nurseryman at Brentford ; his knowledge of apples 

 was gained from a lifelong experience, and his book is a worthy 

 memorial to his labours. 



After this book there was a long period in which no works of the 

 first importance were issued, and it was not until the publication 

 of the " Herefordshire Pomona " of Hogg and Bull that a really 

 comprehensive work on fruits appeared. 



There is one author whose work, though not of great importance, 

 still merits mention, and this is John Rogers, the author of " The 

 Fruit Cultivator," the first edition of which was published in 1834, 

 and the second and third editions in 1835 and 1837. This httle work 

 bears all the marks of originality, and the author's racy personality 

 is frequently in evidence. Both cultural and descriptive matter 

 are included, and many interesting scraps of history are here to be 

 found. It is an entirely human book, which even the most hardened 

 systematist will benefit by including on his shelves. Rogers was 

 in his eighty-fourth year when he wrote this, and his opinions and 

 counsels may therefore be considered mature. 



In the year 1851 was published the first book by Robert Hogg, 

 the pomologist, who for so many years stood high above his contem- 

 poraries in this country. This was entitled " The Apple and its 

 Varieties, being a History and Description of the Varieties of Apples 

 cultivated in the Gardens and Orchards of Great Britain " (London, 

 8vo., 1851 ; second edition, 1859). This was the first volume 

 of a projected British pomology, a work which was not completed 

 on the lines of this volume, but on the more restricted scale of the 

 " Fruit Manual." This work is arranged alphabetically, describes 

 all the more worthy varieties, and gives outline drawings of seventy 

 fruits. A good feature is the reference to a first authority for the 

 name of each fruit, and also to previous literature and coloured plates. 

 A classification based on the season is introduced, but this was dropped 

 by Hogg in later works for his later system of eye and core characters. 

 This work is extremely useful, and one can only regret that it was not 

 followed by further volumes dealing with other fruits in the same 

 manner. In i860 the first edition of the famous " Fruit Manual " 

 appeared, a small 8vo. volume of very different appearance from the 

 stout fifth edition. The descriptions are very short, but all hardy 

 fruits are treated. Other editions rapidly followed, the second in 

 1862, the third in 1866, and the fourth in 1875, which was in size a near 

 approach to the fifth and last edition of 1884. This work is so well 



