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The details of each grand division of Horticulture, cannot 

 be embraced within the range of such general remarks, as pro- 

 priety seems to prescribe for an occasion like the present. They 

 are to be sought in the works of the learned, and rendered 

 familiar, by precedent and progressive experiments. The field 

 is ample, and requires an untiring perseverance, to gather in the 

 rich harvest of instruction, and render it practically available. 

 That this may be achieved in the most economical, speedy, 

 effectual and satisfactory manner, Horticultural Associations have 

 been deemed indispensable. They excite the public interest, 

 foster a taste for the useful and ornamental branches of culture, 

 and stimulate individual exertion ; by the distribution of enter- 

 taining and instructive publications, by a correspondence be- 

 tween the officers and among the members of like institutions, 

 by the establishment of libraries, by premiums for rare, valu- 

 able, beautiful, early, or superior products, important discover- 

 ies, estimable inventions, excellence of tillage, and meritorious 

 communications, by periodical meetings, for the interchange of 

 opinions and mutual instruction, by public exhibitions, and by 

 collecting and disseminating seeds, plants, models of implements, 

 and information on all subjects, connected with the theory and 

 practice of gardening. 



Numerous esculent vegetables, delicious fruits, superb flowers, 

 ornamental shrubs and trees, cereal, vulnerary, and medicinal 

 plants, and others subservient to the arts, manufactures, and pub- 

 lic economy, both exotic and indigenous, are either unknown to 

 us, or but partially cultivated. Several varieties, which have been 

 obtained from the equatorial regions, and confined to the shelter 

 and warmth of green houses, stoves and conservatories, have 

 been found to bear the severities of a boreal winter, even when 

 first exposed, or have been gradually acclimated ; and many are 

 annually detected in every quarter of the globe, which deserv- 

 edly merit naturalization ; and still what numbers are " born to 

 blush unseen and waste their fragrance on the desert air." 



Most of our common fruits, flowers and oleraceous vegetables 



