Introductory Remarks. 



VII 



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

 Applied Science, the Bulletin dela Societe d'Acclimatation 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 on Vegetable Products edited by Mr. J. J. Shil- 

 linglaw, the Garten-Flora, the Wiener Garten-Zeitung, Capetown 

 Agricultural Journal, the Calcutta Agricultural Ledger, Meehan's 

 Monthly, Erfurt Deutsche Gaertner-Zeitung, Bulletins of the Agri- 

 cultural Departments of Sydney, Melbourne, South- Australia and 

 Western Australia 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 six volumes by Dr. Watt on the economic 

 products of India, hitherto issued, have especially 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 originating 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, whether phytographic or popular. So also, in 

 choosing or elaborating the data for entries into this work, it had con- 

 stantly to be kept in view, that the information is intended for the 

 bread-winning portion ot communities in young colonies mainly if 

 not exclusively ; little beyond this is aimed at. Consummate dis- 

 crimination had therefore to be exercised, to circumscribe the informa- 

 tion 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 objectionable weed avoided by pasture- 

 animals, although it continues to be much praised up as an oil-plant. 

 Indigenous plants of special local value and of even easy .restoration 

 are often neglected here and elsewhere, instance our incomparable 

 Redgum-Eucalyptus, Sheep Salt-Bushes, Kangaroo-grass. What 

 may another century have to say about their indiscriminate annihila- 

 tion ? More rotation of crops may ward off various diseases of plants 

 and defertilisation of fields, and this without impairment of remunera- 

 tiveness of harvests. Soil analysis should precede manuring in any 

 kinds of extensive culture, so as to render that operation always most 

 rational, with most of gain, least of exhaustion and remaining clearness. 



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