INTRODUCTION. 



The object of the following treatise is chiefly to lay before 

 its readers a series of facts and observations relating to the con- 

 struction and general management of ail kinds of horticultural 

 structures, drawn from the developments of science, and an 

 extended experience, with the view of leading those who are 

 interested in this delightful pursuit to a more practical inquiry 

 regarding the comparative cost and economy of the various 

 methods now commonly adopted, as well as to draw the atten- 

 tion of practical gardeners to the utility of studying the theory 

 as well as the practice of those manifold operations on which the 

 success of exotic horticulture depends. 



In a short treatise, on such comprehensive and varied subjects, 

 it is impossible to be strictly scientific; but we have endeavored 

 to show the rationale of those methods and operations which we 

 have here recommended, and which have been successfully car- 

 ried out by us in practice. The treatise is avowedly a practical 

 one, and intended chiefly for the use of practical gardeners, and 

 those desirous of obtaining that knowledge which is necessary to 

 eriable them to superintend the erection and future management 

 of their own garden structures. In the management of hot- 

 houses, there is a systematic regularity required in all the oper- 

 ations, a neglect of which is generally attended with disorder 

 and confusion. In fact, there is a sj^stem, the details of which 

 succeed each other like the links of a chain, each operation being 

 essentially connected with the one immediately following and 

 preceding it ; and here we have a most encouraging truth, that 

 the more scientific our principles of working, the more simple 

 and easily performed are our operations, and the more reliable 

 are the results. 



