Vlll INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



us, seems rather to have declined than otherwise,, 

 for of the multitudes who enjoy the banquet thus 

 spread for them, how few ever make any effort to 

 acquaint themselves with the structure or history of 

 the objects which afford them so much pleasure ! It 

 has happened occasionally to the writer to hear some 

 more inquiring disposition express at the dessert- 

 table a wonder how dates grew, or what sort of fruit 

 it was from which French plums were prepared ; but 

 although when once such questions were raised a 

 general interest has mostly become excited, rarely 

 indeed has any information been elicited on even the 

 simplest points, while persons who were thoroughly 

 well informed on most subjects of every-day life have 

 been found utterly at a loss when asked from what 

 plant Brazil nuts were gathered, or what kind of 

 blossom preceded the fig or the pine-apple. It is 

 true that facilities for acquiring such knowledge have 

 been but limited, for the only work on the subject 

 written in a popular style, viz., Phillip's Pomarium 

 Britannicum, published in 1821, has not only been 

 long since out of print, but much of the brief in- 

 formation it afforded has since then become quite 



