274 
VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. 
and practice of gardening, nothing would prove so beneficial to 
the science, or of such general individual utility, as a fair and 
honest record of the characters and qualities of all the numerous 
varieties of culinary vegetables and of domestic fruits which 
have sprung into existence since the vegetable lists and the fruit 
list respectively of the Horticultural Society were prepared. This 
the Society ought to do ; for, according to the dictates of common 
sense and common right, the Society and these labours stand 
identified. If it does not fulfil them, it violates a sacred duty. 
This the Society ought to do, because it is the Horticultural 
Society—because these things are essential to be done for the 
promotion of horticulture—because no one person, nor any 
number of persons, can so well perform such a work—and be¬ 
cause it is supported for objects and purposes of this very kind. 
We hope the attention of the Society will, through the press, be 
directed to this subject, and that ere long we shall see something 
of the kind accomplished. 
It will perhaps be said that, in the case of new fruits or ve¬ 
getables, gardeners can themselves make the trials, and reject such 
as are not found worthy of continued cultivation. But there is 
not one gardener in ten—no, nor one in a hundred—who has 
facilities for doing this ; and with the great bulk of amateur cul¬ 
tivators it is quite out of the question. And what is the conse¬ 
quence of this ? Why, really valuable additions to our gardens 
only come to be generally cultivated after they have gained so 
extended and general a commendation from those who can afford 
to try them, as to involve little risk in growing them; and that 
little, not in respect to their general qualities, but merely their 
adaptation to particular circumstances and objects. And while 
private gardeners cannot make the trials we are alluding to, so 
neither can the dealers, for their recommendations would always 
be open to doubt. The only alternative, therefore, would be for 
the public Society to make a general trial of all, to report fully 
upon all, and thus to furnish, stamped with its own respectability, 
an authoritative standard, on which all might rely. 
We may add a few words as to our notions of how this ought 
to be carried out: 
First, with respect to Fruits. The Catalogue now e&tant 
should undergo a general revision every few years, say every five 
