Preface. v 



cursorily made in the text. The volumes of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment at Washington, the Austrian Apotheker-Verein, the Journal of 

 Applied Science, the Bulletin de la Societe d'Acclimatatioii de France, 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, the Anales de la Sociedad rural Argentina, 

 the Revue Agricole of Mauritius, the Indian Forester, the Journal of 

 the Society of Arts, Therapeutic Gazette, Dyer's Kew Bulletin, 

 Christy's New Commercial Plants, Progress Reports of the Victorian 

 Royal Commission 011 Vegetable Products edited by Mr. J.. J. Shil- 

 linglaw, the Garten-Flora, the Wiener Garten -Zeitung and several 

 other periodicals have likewise afforded data, utilised for this work. 

 B. D. Jackson's "Vegetable Technology," up to 1882, is an admirable 

 guide to the vast literature in this direction. The four volumes of 

 Dr. Watt on the economic products of India, hitherto issued, have 

 likewise been consulted. Many therapeutic notes have been obtained 

 from the recent works of Bartholow, Brunton and Phillips. Special 

 praise should be bestowed on the great Kew-establishment for origina- 

 ting or sustaining the culture of so many new plants, particularly in 

 the British colonies. 



In selecting notes from general rural literature great caution had 

 to be exercised, to guard against being misled by perhaps sometimes 

 faulty nomenclature. Furthermore, in choosing or elaborating the 

 data for entries into this work, it had constantly to be kept in view, 

 that the information is intended for the bread-winning portion of 

 communities in young colonies mainly if not exclusively ; little beyond 

 this is aimed at. Consummate discrimination had therefore to be 

 exercised to circumscribe the information offered in this plain book. 

 Mischief may also be done by careless introductions ; thus Madia may 

 be singled out as an instance of a very invasive and therefore objec- 

 tionable weed avoided by pasture-animals, although it continues to be 

 much praised up as an oil-plant. Indigenous plants of special local 

 value and not easy restoration are often neglected here and else- 

 where. What may another century have to say about their indis- 

 criminate annihilation ? More rotation of crops will ward off various 

 diseases of plants, and this without impairment of remunerativeiiess 

 of harvests. Soil-analysis should precede manuring in any kinds of 

 culture, so as to render that operation always most rational. 



