xl INTRODUCTION 



Unfortunately we have nothing in English agricultural 

 literature to compare with the monumental edition 

 of Olivier De Serres' ' Theatre de l'Agriculture," 

 prepared in 1804 under the all-embracing auspices of 

 Napoleon's genius, to which all the scientific intellect 

 of France contributed annotations and ameliorations, 

 forming, as it were, the tribute of his sons in science 

 to the glory of the Father of French Agronomists 

 and Modern Agriculture, whom our own Arthur 

 Young delighted to honour. 



We have it on Cowley's authority 1 and Cowley 

 by his long and early poem on Plants, anticipating 

 Erasmus Darwin's once highly-prized but now un- 

 duly-neglected " Botanical Garden," earned a right to 

 an opinion upon the subject that 



We nowhere Art do so triumphant see, 

 As when it grafts or buds the tree. 



The question of grafting or hybridising plants is 

 treated in a curiously similar way by Shakespeare in 

 "The Winter's Tale" (Act IV. scene iii.), in a 

 dialogue between Polixenes and Perdita. The latter 

 expresses her contempt for 



Carnations and streak'd gilly-flowers, 

 Which some call nature's bastards : 



1 See post, p. 81. 



