IHTKUBHICTIOHo 



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It is too common a practice to introduce new works to thp 

 notice of the public with observations upon the deficiencies 

 of those already pubhshed. We shall not follow the example ; 

 because we confess that, having originally learned a good deal 

 from other authors, and founded the practice which we after- 

 wards improved, upon the information given us by Miller, 

 Abercrombie, and others who have been so often plundered 

 and abused at the same time, by the writers of very sorry 

 imitations, we are too thankful for all they taught us, to 

 employ ourselves in pointing out their deficiencies. Leaving 

 other works, ancient and modern, to their fate, we propose so 

 to arrange the lessons derived from our predecessors as to 

 form a part of the complete system carried out by ourselves, 

 and so to convey the entire lesson as to be understood by the 

 million. The practical lessons of Miller and Abercrombie 

 were sound and good, so far as they went ; but no one can 

 deny that the great facilities afforded us by modern inventions, 

 — the vast improvements in particular races of flowers and 

 plants, — the advantages of modern science, and other charac- 

 teristics of the age, have enabled us to carry out many opera- 

 tions with much less trouble than our forefathers ; and that 

 if they were living and writing in our times, they would give 

 us a very different series of instructions to those which have, 

 nevertheless, been so useful. Our object -will be to give, as 

 concisely as possible, such instructions as may be profitably 

 learned by all classes, as part of their scholastic acquii'ements : 

 we do not propose to elaborate upon all the modes of grafting; 

 for many that help to fill up modern treatises are mere whims 

 and fancies, — which, like difficult pieces of music without 

 melody, by astonisliing instead of pleasing the hearer, serve 



