viii Introductory Remarks. 



The cost of rural production will all over the world become more 

 equalized, as by increased facilities of traffic through steam-communi- 

 cations the rate of wages will rise in countries with as yet very cheap 

 labour, and the reverse will take place in regions, where handicraft is 

 still very expensive. By this equalisation many plants will become 

 far more widely cultivated than hitherto proved remunerative, not to 

 speak of the labour-saving of more and more application of ever 

 improving machinery ; thus it is now possible to supply lucra- 

 tively fresh orchard-fruits and kitchen-vegetables from the southern tc 

 the northern zone and vice versa, so as to provide articles of daily 

 sustenance accessible at all seasons. 



In grouping together at the close of this volume all the genera, 

 arranged according to the products, which they yield, facility is 

 afforded for tracing out any series of plants, regarding which special 

 economic or technic information may be sought, or which may at any 

 time prominently engage the attention of the cultivator, the manu- 

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

 the respective industrial plants according to their geographic dis- 

 tribution, 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 also help in naming particular species and their products 

 with scientific correctness in establishments for economic culture 

 or for technologic or other educational collections. If the line of 

 demarcation 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 can- 

 not always be fully foretold. Doubtless, many plants of primary 

 importance for rural requirements, here again alluded to, have long 

 since been secured even for new colonies by intelligent early pioneers 

 of immigration, who timely strove to enrich the cultural resources of 

 their adopted country. In these efforts the writer, so far as his public 

 or private means would permit, has endeavoured for more than a third of 

 a century to take an honorable share. But although many such plants 

 may have been introduced, they are not in all instances as yet widely 

 diffused, nor tested in all desirable localities and for all needful 

 purposes ; thus for the sake of completeness even the most ordinary 

 cultural plants have not been passed, as the opportunity seemed yet 

 an apt one, to offer some cursory remarks on their respective value. 



