THE 
3 
a greenish tinge, and shows as much delicacy 
as the Niphetos, without being so readily 
bruised. It is undoubtedly the best white Tea 
we possess. 
Win. Paul & Sons, the great rose growers 
at Waltham Cross, Herts, offer four new hy¬ 
brid perpetuate for the season of 1880. Two 
of them, Florence Paul aud Brilliant, are vivid 
red; Charles Dickons bright pink, aud Inigo 
Jones dark rose tinged with purple. They 
are all said to be hardy garden roses. Whether 
they would bo a success here wo cannot say. 
As one great horticulturist recently re¬ 
marked, we are getting almost too many new 
roses, but so long as the demand continues, 
they will doubtless be produced, and improve¬ 
ments on existing varieties must always find 
a ready market, both in this country aud in 
Europe. E. L. Taplin. 
|Jomoi00kxil. 
C. M. HOVEY AND POMOLOGICAL 
NOMENCLATURE. 
T. T. LYON. 
I may he permitted to state that the “Rules 
for Naming aud Exhibiting Fruits,” resjiecting 
the application of which this discussion has 
arisen, were framed by a committee consist¬ 
ing of T. T. Lyon, of Michigan, C. M. Hovey, 
of Massachusetts; J. J. Thomas, of New York; 
Jno. A. Warder, of Ohio: and P. J. Berck- 
mans, of Georgia. It having been found im¬ 
practicable to secure a meeting of the com 
mittee, a preliminary draft of such rules was 
made by the chairman, and a copy sent to 
each member for criticisms aud suggestions, 
aud the same course.was pursued with the 
final draft, which received the concurrence 
and indorsement of every member of the com¬ 
mittee, Mr. Huvey included. 
Ill order that the character of Mr. 
Hovey’s strictures may be the more perfectly 
comprehended. 1 quote rules 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 
of Section 1st, to which this controversy per¬ 
tains. 
Kule 1.—The originator or Introducer (In the order 
named,) has prior right to bestow a name upou a new 
or unnamed fruit. 
Rule i—The Society reserves the right.. In case of 
long. Inappropriate or otherwise objectionable names, 
to shorten, modify, or wholly change t he ►nunc, when 
they shall oeeur lu It • discussions or report, and also 
to recommend such changes for general adoption. 
Rules.—'The mimes of fruits should preferably, ex¬ 
press, as far ns practicable by a single word, the char 
actcrlstlcs of the variety, the name of the originator, 
or the place of its origin. Under no ordinary etreuni- 
stances should more than a single word be employed. 
With these rules as our guide, if our refusal 
to indorse the objectionable names constitutes 
“boycotting,” then is the American Pomotog- 
ioal Society, of which Mr. Hovey is an hon¬ 
ored otlicial member the boyeotter; and that, 
too, under the rules originated and reported 
with Ids personal approval. 
Mr. Hovey cliargas a wholesale change of 
the names of fruits by the American Pomol- 
ogieal Society, to which I w ill only reply by a 
denial that, in any ease within my knowledge, 
this has been done. The nearest approach to 
tills, so far as I have discovered, is on the part 
of the Committee of Revision, fu Such cases as 
American Golden Russet Apple and Fondante 
d' Automme Pear, in which names heretofore, 
by many, at least, considered as synonyms, 
are mode to do duty as the standard or leading 
names. All other cases, so far os I have ob¬ 
served, consist in omitting redundant or now 
meaningless words. Even this, so far as I 
have observed, is done with the utmost care to 
avoid any possible abiguity or uncertainty as 
to the identity of the variety intended. 
The American PoinologieaJ Society is large¬ 
ly a delegated body, and represents the great 
body of American pomologists, quite as per¬ 
fectly as Congress represents the mass of our 
people. Hence its right to frame rules for our 
guidance iu poinological matters, and I fancy 
that the person who may have a new and val¬ 
uable fruit to offer to the public, will he very 
likely to feel a difference amounting to a good 
many “ligB,” between the approval and the 
disapproval of a society so constituted, with 
reason aud propriety on its side. Iu all this, 
it must not be supposed that I assume to speak 
for the society, other than as ouo of its mem¬ 
bers, bound by its rules. 
Mr. Hovey further remarks, in spooking of 
names of fruits—"There is no objection to 
nicknames, and nurserymen and cultivators, 
who have no time to write them in full, could 
abbreviate as much as they please.” I ob¬ 
serve, however, that tjjpughtful parents very 
generally avoid such names for their progeny 
as naturally suggest nicknames, preferring to 
avoid them if possible; while iu pomology 
there are higher and far more important rea¬ 
sons for avoiding the using, and the consequent 
necessity for learning us well as for recording, 
an increased multiplicity of synonyms. 
While volubility and prolixity seem to be 
characteristic features of French character, as 
well as of French nomenclature, the American 
thinks and talks far more tersely; and, as a 
natural consequence, prefers a terse, yet sig¬ 
nificant nomenclature 
Van Buren Co., Michigan. 
THE FIGUE AND DOYENNE D’ ALEN- 
CON PEARS. 
I have grown both the Figue d’ Alencon 
and Doyeimd d’ Alencon for a score or more 
of years. The trees having been procured of 
Ellwanger & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y.. I 
have no doubt they are true to name. I think 
with Mr. Hovey, page 284, “there is evidently 
some mistake” with regard to the cut there re¬ 
THAT FIGUE D’ALENCON PEAR. 
By that name I wrongly called a fruit pic¬ 
tured in a late Rural. Its label and its like¬ 
ness to Downing's description of the Figue, in 
all but shape, misled me. The true Figue is 
so named from its fig shape. As stated in his 
note, C. M. Hovey, than whom American 
pomology boasts no one more accurate and 
venerable, at first thought the portrait might 
be thatof the Doyenn£ D’Alencon. But spee- 
iments just ripening sent me by him refute 
the claim as to form, color and season of fruit¬ 
ing. Perhaps the pear sent the Rural and in 
dispute, is the Beurre Gris d’Hiver Nouveau. 
But the marked likeness of that portrayed, 
to one I have in different soil, by the latter 
DUVAL PExAR. From Nature. Fig. 248 
ferred to, but I think he is 'also mistaken in 
his conclusion that the Doyenne d’ Alencon is 
the one illustrated. The illustration looks as 
though a good s|>ecimen of Princes' St. Germain 
had sat for its portrait in both form and shape 
of fruit and stem. The Figue d* Alencon re¬ 
sembles a fig in shape, with a short, thick stem, 
less than half an inch long, if my memory 
serves me. The skin of this pear is brown or 
brownish green. Of its quality I can only say 
that I have never hail any that reached a con¬ 
dition lit to eat. If I attempt to keep them 
till that time they generally find their way to 
the pigs or cows; otherwise they reach the 
same destination earlier or are sold for cook¬ 
ing. On the whole, neither variety with me 
is worth cumbering the ground. 
A.t times the Doyenud d’ Alencon has come 
name, starts a doubt about their identity. So 
now thinks Mr. Hovey. 
With the help of Mr. Hovey’s half century’s 
accurate knowledge of fruits, I shall get a 
correct verdict in the Fall, which shall be 
published. In the meantime, let all to whom 
I have sent cions of the pictured fruit rest con¬ 
tent that they have a tine winter pear. The 
Hi ral S portrait of the pear in dispute is ac¬ 
curate. Some specimens are a little plumper 
and more shouldered around the stein. It has 
when picked a sort of an olive russet skin or 
russet on an olive ground. It ripens up to a 
bright cinnamon russet, on a dullish yellow 
ground. The flesh is greenish white, buttery, 
somewhat, granular and of a very liteh and 
peculiar flavor and aroma. It kee]« from 
November to February. It should lie kept in 
DUVAL PEAR. Cross Section. Fig. 249. 
up so good that I felt encouraged to grow it, 
but it is so fickle in this resjieet that 1 give up 
all hopes of its over becoming popular here. 
Montclair, N. J. k. williams. 
[Both Mr, Williams and Pres. Wilder favor 
us with sketches of the Figued’ Alencon Pear, 
which may be described as lig-shaped with a 
short, stout stalk inclined to a fleshy lip.—E ds.] 
' close boxes and'often inspected,as it both wilts 
and rots readily. gen. wm. h. noble. 
Bridgeport, Conn. 
THE DUVAL PEAR. 
(See, also, editorial page.) 
, The pear Duval (Fig. 248, with cross-section 
j at Fig. 249) is an old variety received from 
France about 50 years ago. Downing’s de¬ 
scription is correct. By the rules of the Po- 
mological Society it would he classed as good 
to very good, but there are so many of its sea¬ 
son of better quality that it has dropped out. 
of cultivation except in a few of our collec¬ 
tions. MARSHALL C. WILDER. 
THAT “SEEDLING” AFFIX. 
I STAND by our veteran pomologlst, C. M. 
Hovey, in adding “seedling” to its originator’s 
name, given to a new fruit. No other word 
tells so briefly just what vee want to know, 
it is due to the originator and to poruological 
history, that this affix should follow his name. 
Every new fruit is a seedling, but not every 
new fruit knows its own father. Because 
some hedge-grown wilding, some eame-by- 
chauee good fruit is found, the finder thereof 
gains no right to christen it after himself as 
“seedling.” If I raise new fruit, and name it 
after another, the uflix of seedling would be 
wrong, and if the name was in the possessive, 
I would tell a lie. But ivben to the name of 
its author, as in Hovey’s Seedling Strawberry 
or Cherry, “seedling” is added, you have in the 
two words the history of the fruit. Any body 
who can claim the parentage of two such 
fruits, ought to covet and be proud of the 
record which that word seedling fastens to 
his name and to the literature of the orchard. 
GEN. W. H. NOBLE. 
STRAWBERRY BLIGHT. 
Every strawberry grower is familiar with 
the white spots that occur on the leaves of cer¬ 
tain varieties of the berry. This disease is 
very common from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
yet very few know its real cause. The white 
spots are circular, about one-eighth of an inch 
m diameter; and surrounded by a dark red 
stripe. An examination of the spots with a 
lens will disclose in the center of the white 
spot a number of small mealy tufts. These 
little tufts are exceedingly minute, and their 
color resembles that of the spot so closely that 
it requires patience aud close examination to 
find them. The small mealy tufts consist of 
an immense number of cylindrical bodies sup- 
Isorted on slender stalks. These small bodies 
are the spores or reproductive bodies of a 
fungus known to botonists ns Ramularia fra- 
garia (Pk). The disease then is not caused 
by the scalding heat of the sun, nor is it the 
work of insects; hut it is caused by the min¬ 
ute parasite mentioned above. 
Many, if not all. of the higher plants serve 
os hosts for one or more species of fungi. 
Several Of these parasites attack the straw¬ 
berry, but the one mentioned is the most de- 
structive. As far as made out, the life history 
of this fungus is about as follows: The vege¬ 
tative portion of the fungus (called mycelium) 
consists of sleudea* colorless threads, which are 
exceedingly minute, and first appear in the tis¬ 
sue of the leaf, ultimately destroying the vi¬ 
tality of the cells in their immediate vicinity 
aud causing the white spots described above. 
The reproductive bodies are formed on the 
slender branching threads, beneath the epi¬ 
dermis of the leaf, and when they have at¬ 
tained the proper size, they rupture this cov¬ 
ering aud appear in the center of the white 
spot in small tufts. 
At Fig. 246 is shown a portion of a leaf 
Fig. 246. 
of a strawberry, showing spots of the natural 
size. Fig. 247 is a tuft of spores showing 
the supporting stalks aud mycelium. 
The disease is usually more abundant in old 
beds where the plants have become thick and 
