PREFACE. 
vr. 
kind, in order to avoid procuring it again. Hence the number 
of varieties of fruit that are admitted here. Little by little I 
have summoned them into my pleasant and quiet court, tested 
them as far as possible, and endeavoured to pass the most 
impartial judgment upon them. The verdicts will be found in 
the following pages. 
From this great accumulation of names, Pomology has be- 
come an embarrassing study, and those of our readers who 
are large collectors will best understand the difficulty — nay, the 
impossibility of making a work like this perfect. 
Towards settling this chaos in nomenclature, the exertions of 
the Horticultural Society of London have been steadily directed 
for the last twenty years. That greatest of experimental gardens 
contains, or has contained, nearly all the varieties of fruit, from 
all parts of the world, possessing the least celebrity. The vast 
confusion of names, dozens sometimes meaning the same varie- 
ty, has been by careful comparison reduced to something like 
real order. The relative merit of the kinds has been proved 
and published. In short, the horticultural world owes this So- 
ciety a heavy debt of gratitude for these labours, and to the 
science and accuracy of Mr. Robert Thompson, the head of its 
fruit-department, horticulturists here will gladly join me in bear- 
ing the fullest testimony. 
To give additional value to these results, I have adopted in 
nearly all cases, for fruits known abroad, the nomenclature of 
the London Horticultural Society. By this means I hope to 
render universal on this side of the Atlantic the same standard 
names, so that the difficulty and confusion which have always 
more or less surrounded this part of the subject may be hereafter 
avoided. 
These foreign fruits have now been nearly all proved in 
this country, and remarks on their value in this climate, de- 
duced from actual experience, are here given to the public. To 
our native and local fruits especial care has also been devoted. 
Not only have most of the noted sorts been proved in the gar- 
dens here, but I have had specimens before me for comparison, the 
growth of no less than fourteen of the different States. There 
are still many sorts, nominally fine, which remain to be collect- 
ed, compared, and proved; some of which will undoubtedly de- 
