In an essay read before a Western Pomological Society complaint was made that Eastern horticultural papers gave so little encouragement to the introducers of new fruits to write up their novelties, that new magazines were necessary to open up a new field for them. So far as the Gardeners' Monthly is concerned this remark has some show of truth, for we are continually under the unpleasant duty of declining cuts and descriptions of new fruits, not because we do not regard them good, but because we think that many branches of pomology have so advanced that mere goodness is no great recommendation. We want to be sure that a novelty is better in some one point at least, or for some special purpose, than others existing, before we think it worth an extended notice in our columns. Hence such things as apples, pears, peaches, strawberries and raspberries, where the varieties are very numerous, or new ones easily raised, it is not easy to produce a variety that will seem to us worthy of much space in the Gardeners' Monthly. We illustrate to-day a pear we believe to be well worthy of the space the notice occupies - the Lucy Duke, raised by Mrs. Lucy Duke, of Beaufort, North Carolina, from seed of a California pear.

It is a large brown pear, and reminds us very much of those excellent varieties raised by the late Bernard Fox, of San Jose, and which were figured by us at the time, one of which, the Barry, is working its way to high favor. The quality of this is fully equal to those excellent varieties. The fruit from which our drawing is made reached us in the middle of October. We would hardly like to say that the flavor is equal to a first-class Seckel, but one may safely aver that it is very little behind it. It has the same rich aroma that is so pleasing to all lovers of fine pears. The specimens came from Mr. J. Van Lindley, of Pomona, North Carolina.