that we may assume that every one knows at least the most common and useful of them. Special attention should be directed, however, to the fact that the surface of the leafwhether it be smooth, rough, rugose, tomentose, lanate, wooly, hairy, or of some other quality -is often of considerable value in identifying varieties. The glands, which are often found on the petioles, or leaf stalks, particularly in stone fruits, are frequently of critical consequence in description. Peach leaves may be glandless, or set with orbicular or reniform (kidney-shaped) glands. In describing plums, the approximate number of glands at the base of the leaf, or along the petiole, is to be chiefly considered.

General notes will usually accompany any full description. It will be seen that most of the description blanks in use offer comparatively ample space for this entry. These notes may cover such a wide range that it is hardly possible to give any general directions for making them. Peculiarities of soil or location, which might have influenced the specimens described; facts with regard to the storage of the specimens; notes on insect or fungus injuries; general remarks on the value or uses

of the variety; notes with respect to its origin, introduction, or history; discussion of nomenclature and synonymy; and dozens of other matters all come up for review. Any information worth preserving should be put down, and if there is no other place provided, the entry can be made under the head of General Notes."

The grower of a sample of fruit should always be remembered in the description, with his location and post-office address. The locality where a sample is grown is of great importance, for the reason that the same variety often develops very differently in different localities. The name and address of the grower are valuable in identifying or verifying the sample, and in tracing the matter up in case any doubt arises subsequently as to the authenticity of the variety. This information, while not strictly descriptive, is essential.

The one who describes a sample of fruit should always certify the description with his own name. This enables the person who uses the description to judge its value, and sometimes to secure additional details. Accuracy in description is, to a considerable

extent, a matter of training and experience. One man's descriptions are apt to be considerably better than another man's, and the one who consults the written description has a right to know its value as nearly as possible. Certain points in description, moreover, as elsewhere explained, are always matters of purely personal judgment, and the person who renders the judgment should therefore be held responsible in the record.

The date at which the description is made. is also a matter of some interest (sometimes of real consequence), though its value is more bibliographical than descriptive. It should always be given.

Before we pass now to the description of the fruits themselves, we may stop for a single observation regarding the nature of the sample to be chosen. It goes without saying that the specimens chosen for description should be representative-typical. It is desirable in many cases, of course, to preserve notes of abnormal samples, but the fact of their abnormality should be conspicuously advertised in the description. In all ordinary cases great pains will be taken to select only

those specimens which fairly and fully present the characters of the whole lot.

Within reasonable limits, the larger the sample the better the notion which one can form of the variety, and the more accurate the description which one can render. An entire bushel basketful of apples or peaches is not too many. Yet even from these one will naturally choose a few specially well-formed and typical specimens for critical examination while making up his notes. Usually five to eight such specimens, carefully selected, will form the most convenient and satisfactory basis of a description.

The simplest and easiest way to make a description is to draw it from a single specimen. If special care is taken to secure one fruit which represents the variety fairly in all points, such a method is not particularly objectionable. Beginners may be allowed to follow this plan for a time, but it should by no means be permitted to come into customary

use.

The descriptive value of a good picture is very great indeed. This is recognized everywhere. Even the daily papers use pictures to enforce their description of places and their

records of events. Anyone who is accustomed to use such books as Downing's "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," Dr. Warder's "American Pomology," or Thomas' "Fruit Culturist," has certainly learned that the figures of fruits therein given are often more useful than the descriptive text.

In making descriptions, therefore, the value of a good figure should be duly recognized. No description can fairly be allowed to be complete without some sort of drawing or photograph of the fruit in question.

A good pen or pencil drawing of the fruit is excellent for record, but it is difficult to make. Only a few persons, usually such as have had some training in drawing, can draw such sketches with sufficient lifelikeness to make them very serviceable.

The outline of a fruit may be taken much more easily, and this is the method adopted by the ordinary man whose fingers are all thumbs and whose thumbs are all stiff and sore. Such a fruit as an apple can be readily cut in half and laid upon a sheet of paper. Its outline is then traced with a pencil, and the tracing may be subsequently reinforced with ink. Plums, peaches, and softer fruits must