16 ON THE CULTURE AND PROPAGATION OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



stance that has produced a new aspect. This may turn out important 

 information, in fact information on which is based a great many 

 varieties of cultivation ; if a richness of flowering has been the result, 

 it may he so in other cases ; if luxuriance of foliage has followed, 

 the same cause may produce a like effect; if gracefulness of outline, 

 it will do so perhaps again. It will he for him to note these causes, 

 to store up these facts, and make use of them as occasion may re- 

 quire. He may imitate, modify, or avoid, as best suits the end in 

 view ; no information of this sort, or indeed of any sort, is useless, it 

 will come to his aid sooner or later; for the man possessing a general 

 acquaintance with the internal structure of plants, and the various 

 relations which the different organs sustain to each other, combined 

 with an extensive knowledge of the numberless external effects and 

 transformations produced by causes under his control, has an im- 

 mense advantage over a person who cultivates his plants from mere 

 verbal directions, or does as he sees, or has seen others do ; he knows 

 that in certain seasons such and such treatment is necessary, but he 

 is ignorant why he ought to do so. Now plant cultivation is modified 

 by so many circumstances, many of them beyond control, that to 

 know that this treatment or the other is required is not all ; he must 

 know when and why it is necessary. If this knowledge from expe- 

 rience and observation be wanting nothing whatever can adequately 

 supply its place. The best calendar of operations will not make a 

 good gardener; their great "use is merely to refresh the memory, for 

 even were they as full and correct a9 it is possible to make them, the 

 farther they travel from the climate to which they are adapted their 

 value decreases, for the directions for one portion of the country does 

 not apply without modification to all parts ; for this reason, we look 

 upon a work such as the Cabinet, as rendering the most important 

 service to amateurs, as any improvements are given as they aie dis- 

 covered, and that too at little expense. However, no work can super- 

 sede personal study and observation in the lover of plants ; and we 

 firmly assert, that if in this delightful pursuit nothing is done to 

 thwart nature's laws, but all his exertions tend towards a free develop- 

 ment of them, if they are judiciously assisted and impelled, tlie 

 amateur, even with his artificial structures and confined root room, 

 will have the most ample satisfaction and reward for his labour. 

 We have written this as a sort of preface to a few papers, illus- 



