PREFACE. 



engage at any time the attention of the cultivator, the manufac- 

 turer, or the artisan. Again, in placing together in index-form the 

 respective industrial plants according to their geographic distribu- 

 tion, as has likewise been done in the concluding pages, it is 

 rendered easy to order or obtain from abroad the plants of such 

 other countries with which any settlers or colonists may be in 

 relation through commercial, literary, or other intercourse. Lists 

 like the present may aid also in naming the plants and their pro- 

 ducts with scientific correctness in establishments of economic 

 horticulture or in technologic or other educational collections. If 

 the line of demarkation between the plants admissible into this list 

 and those which should have been excluded has occasionally been 

 extended in favour of the latter, then it must be pleaded that 

 the final value of any particular species for a peculiar want, 

 locality, or treatment cannot often be fully foretold. Many plants 

 of primary importance for rural requirements alluded to now have 

 long since been secured by the intelligent early pioneers of immigra- 

 tion, who timely strove to enrich also the cultural resources of their 

 adopted country ; and in the seefforts the writer, so far as his public 

 or private means did ever permit, has endeavoured for the past 

 quarter of a century to take an honourable share. But although 

 such plants are introduced, they are not in all instances as yet 

 widely diffused, nor in all desirable localities tested. For the sake 

 of completeness even the most ordinary cultural plants have not 

 been passed, as the opportunity seemed an apt one to offer a few 

 cursory remarks on their value. The writer entertains a hope that 

 a copy of this plain volume will be placed in the library of any 

 State schools, to serve educational purposes also by occasional and 

 perhaps frequent reference to these pages. The increased ease of 

 communication, which has latterly arisen between nearly all parts 

 of the globe, places us now also in a fair position for independent 

 efforts to suggest or promote introductions of new vegetable 

 treasures from unexplored regions, or to submit neglected plants 

 of promising value to unbiassed original tests. It may merely 

 be instanced that, after the lapse of more than three centuries 

 since the conquest of Mexico, only the most scanty information is 



