We welcome the " utile cum dulce," when it is the honest boast of any plant of floral loveliness. The mass of blooming plants yield us only their fragrance and flowers. Of ornamental shrubs, I think only the Berberry and Japan Quince, give us a fruit that stores the promise of usefulness.

Only lately has the Japan Quince, beyond a theory, seemed prophetic of fitness for the table as a conserve. Its round, plump, and enduring fruit, has for years wasted on the ground, or been gathered into the rubbish pile. Yet all the while there have been floating rumors of its deserving a better fate. Years since, I reported to your journal a story of its tried excellence for jellies and jams. Among other rumors of its use in the household, came one from friends of that princess of housewives, Mrs. H. W. Beecher. It was said that she had tried, and prized this quince, as a great culinary acquisition.

I am now able to say, from my own sight and taste, that it makes a finer jelly, and as pleasant a marmalade, as the Orange Quince. The jelly is strongly acid, and of the most delicate tinge and transparency. The marmalade from it is of much lighter hue, and finer grain, than that of the common quince.

It requires only the simplest treatment. Anyone who can jelly any fruit, can succeed with this. Just so as to the marmalade. Although so hard in substance, the fruit softens easily when cooked. Besides these merits, the Japan Quince has no worm-eaten fruits; all are smooth and fair, unblemished by the worm-favors so annoying in the old cultivated kinds.

The variety of this shrub with cherry colored blossoms, or that with pink and white blossoms, yields the finest, largest, best flavored, and most pulpy fruits.

A plantation of this quince, set as closely as it will flourish, would yield a very profitable crop for a canning concern. It is a sure crop, has no windfalls, does not rot, does not shrivel, and stands the colds and frosts well up to winter.

This quince grows about as large as the Guava shrub; its raw fruit is to the taste, full as pleasant as the Guava. I hope to see it as largely used.

Bridgeport, Conn.