INTRODUCTION. 221 



for him to know, that he can improve every produc- 

 tion of nature, if he will but once make it his own by 

 possession and attachment. A conviction of this 

 truth has rendered the cultivation of fruits, in the 

 more polished countries of Europe, as successful as we 

 now behold it. 



In carrying the pursuit of any branch of know- 

 ledge to the utmost limits of its means, a stimulus 

 to activity and mental exertion is produced, which 

 is in itself a great good. The establishment of the 

 Horticultural Society of London has afforded such 

 an impulse to the art of gardening. It was well 

 observed by the President, in the first paper of its 

 Transactions, that " the austere crab of our woods 

 has been converted into the golden pippin ; and 

 the numerous varieties of the plum can boast no 

 other parent than our native sloe. Yet few ex- 

 periments have been made, the object of which 

 has been new productions of this sort; and almost 

 every ameliorated variety of fruit appears to have been 

 the offspring of accident, or of culture applied to 

 other purposes. We may therefore infer, with little 

 danger of error, that an ample and unexplored field 

 for future discovery and improvement lies before us, 

 in which nature does not appear to have formed any 

 limits to the success of our labours, if properly ap- 

 plied." This institution was founded in 1805, by 

 the spirited exertions of Sir Joseph Banks, the 

 Earls of Powis and Dartmouth, Mr. Knight, and 

 several other eminent naturalists and encouragers of 

 useful pursuits. Under the direction of distinguished 

 men of science as its officers, and with the assist- 

 ance of the most skilful practical gardeners, this 

 Society has given a great impulse to that taste 

 for gardening which began to be generally diffused 

 about the middle of the last century. Its objects are 

 of much more extensive range than can be effected 



