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THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, President of the 

 Horticultural Society of London, F. R. S. &c. &c. If the 

 questions were put to me who is the most scientific Horticul- 

 turist now living ? — Who unites to a knowledge of the Practices 

 of Gardening-, tlie most perfect knowledge of the sciences that 

 assist it? Which of living Horticulturists has conferred the 

 greatest benefits upon our art? I should quote Mr. K-iightin 

 reply to them all. Whether we follow him in his researches as 

 a Physiologist, in his luminous observations and discoveries 

 respecting (he Sap of Plants; as a general Cultivator in the nu- 

 merous Papers on every branch of Horliculture in the Trans- 

 actions of the Society of which he is President; and especially 

 in the raising of improved varieties of Fruits and Culinary es- 

 culents, we find in all the most ample justification of our opinion 

 that he is the first Horticulturist of our times. Nor is he emi- 

 nent only in the higher walks of Horticulture, for at Down ton 

 Hall he demonstrates that he is capable of securing the correct 

 performance of every detail of Gardening. 



Mr Knight was born at W^ormeley Grange in Herefordshire, 

 in 17-35). "My father, says Mr. Knigbt in a late communica- 

 tion to me, was a man of much learning and acquirements. 

 Having great power of mind, and living in an extremely quiet 

 and sequestered spot, he was supposed by his ignorant neigh- 

 bours, in their language, "to know every thing.'' He died at an 

 advanced age when Mr. Knightwas an infant, and as evidence 

 of the respect his knowledge obtained him, whenever in child- 

 hood his son sought for informatio~n upon any unusual subject, 

 he was told " that his father would have answered him, but that 

 nobody now could." Being born in the midst of Orchards "I 

 was early led, continues this distinguished Physiologist, to ask 

 whence the varieties of fruit I saw came, and how they were 

 produced ; I could obtain no satisfactory answer, and was 

 thence first led to commence experiments, in which through a 

 long life of scarcely interrupted health, I have persevered and 

 probably shall persevere as long as I possess the power." 



