INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



As preliminary to the second part of this work, circumstances render it 

 necessary to add a few remarks to those made at the commencement of the 

 volume. It will be seen that the following pages differ materially from the 

 preceding. It was our design in the first division of the subject to condense 

 some of the most important facts in relation to the life, habits, structure 

 and general character of plants, reserving for the second part a brief notice 

 of the most useful and remarkable properties of particular plants and their 

 fruits. But the subject, from its great interest, has insensibly grown in 

 our hands, however far short of its merits the present work may appear. 



Both parts having been finished, we should do injustice to ourselves and 

 others, did we not avail ourselves of this opportunity to express our appre. 

 hensions of disappointment with some who might very naturally look for 

 more or particular information on branches of a subject so fruitful of inter- 

 est, and did we not at the same time express our obligations to sources of 

 information which the volume may be found to contain. The same remarks 

 are due from us in respect to either part. The choice of topics in both de- 

 partments being, however, left with ourselves, as well as the manner of 

 their execution, we must trust to the majority of our readers for a favora- 

 ble decision upon the merits of our choice and labor in both. 



Many other departments of the subject might have been introduced, and 

 much more have been profitably said upon those we have presented, but 

 that would not have corresponded either with our limited space or our ori- 

 ginal design. It is apprehended, indeed, that we have condensed too much 

 within our allotted space, and that this has been done at the sacrifice of 

 perspicuity. To us this appears the most obvious fault, and we therefore 

 beg of our readers a repeated and more careful perusal. The whole having 

 been written with a view to embrace a greater number of useful facts than 

 most works on the same subjects, we could not have enlarged upon any one 

 of them, or more fully illustrated their extent and importance, but by the 

 exclusion of other facts and other subjects. Under these circumstances we 

 trust our readers will look rather for useful facts than for any display of 

 language or power of illustration. The book, consequently, if read as we 

 designed it should be and as its numerous particulars evidently require, 

 will be perused often and carefully. 



That we are under obligations to numerous sources for facts embodied in 

 the work, it will scarcely be necessary for us to assert. Like most works 

 on science, and especially on this branch of it, where the extended and com- 

 bined observations and long practical experience of so many are necessary 



