THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
45 
written for the special benefit of collectors, and it is but proper 
here to say that in every class of vegetables and fruits are to 
be found varieties that enjoy considerable fame, and as a rule 
those varieties have become famous by their merits, and there- 
fore have the first claim on our attention. In the chapters 
that follow the best varieties, in every class, will be named ; 
and we may close this paragraph with the remark, that, when- 
ever it is found that some particular variety is known by 
many names, it should be noted as desirable, for a multiplicity 
of synonyms is a proof of merit — it will not pay to give a 
bad thing a number of names. The writer of this could tell 
of a trading firm, that for several years in succession offered 
the British Queen pea every year under a new name ; a bad or 
even second-rate pea would not bear such an incrustation of 
trickery; but this old variety is so good that, when people 
discover they have been cheated, they are not inclined to 
complain, because the remembrance of the delicious peas they 
have eaten awakens a generous feeling, which is averse to 
putting the naughty seedsman on his trial. First-class houses 
are of course above this sort of thing ; they are not indeed 
infallible, and happily do not pretend to immunity from error,, 
but they never catalogue a novelty until they have grown it 
lor several years, and in fact they cannot, for before offering a 
novelty, it is necessary to secure a large stock to cover the cost 
of advertising, and to do this necessitates a thoroughly severe 
trial culture, in the course of which the peculiarities of the 
variety are likely to be thoroughly mastered. Those who are 
well versed in garden varieties find an immense amount of 
amusement in comparing novelties with the kinds they are 
represented as superseding, but it is a pastime quite unsuited 
to beginners, who had better be content with such things as 
have attained to celebrity through qualities approved by many 
witnesses, through a long succession of seasons and under a 
great variety of conditions. 
