ON THB CULTUKE AND PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 31 



ARTICLE IV.— On the Culture and Propagation of 

 Plants, arranged according to the Natural System. 

 No. I. By Mr. F. F. Ashford. 



I have for some time past fostered the intention of commencing 

 a series of communications on the propagation and cultivation of 

 plants arranged according to the natural system, hut until now 

 have heen deterred from so doing hy private and unforeseen events. 

 To the practical man they may probably be of but little use, but 

 to the rising generation of young gardeners, and those persons 

 who take delight in watching Flora in all her stages, from the 

 veeetatimr of the seed to the maturation of the fruit, — to this class 

 of persons they may be of some utility in the management of 

 plants committed to their care ; and if you think they merit in- 

 sertion in the valuable pages of the Floricultural Cabinet, they 

 are entirely at your service, and shall be followed up by others as 

 opportunity permits. 



As the great Author of the Universe created nothing in vain, 

 surelv he must be an unconscious observer of nature that does not 

 discover in every walk, and every where, the goodness of an all- 

 wise Providence in clothing the fields with verdure and the earth 

 with beauties innumerable, for the support of animated nature — 

 all tending to the advancement of our thoughts to that Being who 

 created them. 



I do not propose taking the orders as they are placed in the 

 s\ stem, but to notice those first that are the most extensive, or 

 containing genera most worthy of notice : commencing, therefore, 

 with the order of Leguminossc, ranking the 67th in the system of 

 Jussieu, not only being the most numerous in genera and species, 

 but one of the most useful to mankind. 



Leguminous plants are immediately recognised by their papi- 

 lionaceous flowers in a large number, pods and pinnate leaves 

 constituting the remainder. As objects of ornament, many are 

 ] possessed of unrivalled beauty: for example — among hardy flow- 

 ering trees, the Robinia and Laburnum ; for the flower-garden 

 borders, the various species of the Cytisus, Caragana, &c. ; among 

 hardy climbers, the far-famed Glycinias of China and North Ame- 

 rica, with the herbaceous Vicia and Lathyrus ; and lastly, among 

 hardy herbaceous plants, the genera of Lupinus and Astragalus. 



