If Ave turn to books on gardening, even by re- 

 spectable writers, how vague, and sometimes how 

 absurd, are the general directions for preserving fruit 

 trees " from the slug," and " from the caterpillar," 

 as if all slugs and all caterpillars were alike, infest- 

 ed the same trees, appeared at the same time, and 

 were to be destroyed by the same means. In this, as 

 in medicine, the disease must be sedulously watched 

 from its commencement through all its stages ; — ac- 

 curate observations must be noted down, even on 

 the most trivial points ; — and finally, if the injury 

 does really originate in an insect, specimens of that 

 insect in all its stages must be preserved. With 

 such materials the Naturalist's advice may be asked 

 with some prospect of advantage. How this subject 

 has been so unaccountably overlooked I know not ; 

 but I do know that it deserves the immediate atten- 

 tion of this Society, and might well be entitled to 

 its highest premium. 



The science, however, which sheds the strongest 

 and most widely diffused radiance upon the labors of 

 the Horticulturist, is Botany, in all its branches, but 

 more especially that of Phytology, which teaches the 

 structure of plants, and the functions of their several 

 organs ; for the gardener, like the physician, has to 

 deal with the vital principle ; — and, like him, should 

 understand the anatomy and physiology of the sub- 

 jects that come under his care. This is essential, in 

 order to enable him, in any other than the hazardous 

 manner of an empiric, to promote their health, to re- 



