Waugh's Artificial Classification

The writer of these lines not long ago prepared a tentative classification of pears on arbitrary lines which may properly be reproduced here.* The classification rests upon three separate characters, as follows:

I. Form-The pears may be divided into four
classes, according to form of the fruit, as fol-
lows:

1. Round or oblate pears; those not tapering
toward the stem.

2. Obconic pears; those tapering more or less
toward the stem, but not constricted into a
neck.

3. Pyriform pears; those having a visibly con-
stricted neck.

4. Irregular pears: those markedly irregular, and
not conforming to any of the foregoing
classes.

II. Season--Each of these four classes may be divided
into three orders according to the season of
ripening of the fruit-i.e., summer pears,
autumn pears, and winter pears.

III. Color-Each of these twelve orders may be
divided into three groups, according to the
color of the fruit, as follows:

1. Uncolored fruit-i.e., fruit which is pure
green, or, when ripe, pure yellow.

* Country Gentleman, 67: 1016. Albany, N. Y., 1902.

2. Colored fruit; such as is marked distinctly with red in the sun.

3. Russeted fruit; such as is distinctly marked more or less with russet.

Following this outline, we may readily analyze any number of varieties into thirty-six groups, and these groups may be further subdivided by characters of calyx, basin, etc., into many smaller sections if one's convenience seems to be served thereby.

Just to show how this works we may try it on a few varieties, as follows:

I. Round or oblate.

(a) Summer.

(b) Autumn.

1. Green or yellow.

2. Red.

3. Russet-Merriam.

(c) Winter.

3. Russet-Bergamotte d'Esperen.

II. Obconic.

(a) Summer.

1. Green or yellow-Bloodgood.

2. Red-Buffum, Manning's Elizabeth.

(b) Autumn.

I. Green

Comice.

or yellow-Ontario, Urbaniste,

2. Red-Flemish Beauty, Howell, Seckel.

3. Russet-Hardy, Boussock, Angouleme,

Sheldon.

(c) Winter.

1. Green or yellow-Lawrence.
2. Red-Clairgeau.

3. Russet-Anjou, Dana's Hovey.

III. Pyriform.

(a) Summer.

1. Green or yellow-Brandywine, Jargonelle. 2. Red-Tyson, Giffard, Clapp, Bartlett.

(b) Autumn.

1. Green or yellow-Dix, Onondaga.

2. Red-Louise bonne de Jersey.

3. Russet-Bosc, Souvenir d'Esperen, Diel. (c) Winter.

1. Green or yellow-Vicar of Winkfield.
3. Russet-Winter Nelis.

IV. Irregular.

(b) Autumn.

2. Red-Goodale.

These varieties are classified as shown above merely for the purpose of illustrating the scheme, and not as a result of careful study of the pears themselves. It would be a real service to pomology if some one who has access to a large collection of varieties of pears would work out such a classification as this for the use of the rest of us who are less fortunately situated.

XVII

THE CLASSIFICATION OF PEACHES

SYSTEMATIC study of varieties of peaches in this country is of recent origin. Apparently the first important contribution to the subject was made by Professor R. H. Price, in his Texas Experiment Station Bulletin 39, published in 1896. In this he proposes to divide the cultivated peaches into several natural groups. These groups he characterizes fully, and into them he distributes a majority of the varieties then known in Texas. All the more recent classifications have been founded on this one, and are like it in some degree. In his "Cyclopedia of American Horticulture" (3:1227), published in 1901, Professor L. H. Bailey gives a natural classification for peaches very closely modeled on the Price classification. In W. G. Johnson's book, “The Peach Crop," the present writer in turn has outlined a natural classification of peaches, which, with a few changes of names and descriptive terms, follows the same outline.

*Orange Judd Co., New York.

It