PREFACE BY JHE ENGLISH EDITOR, 



THE Author of the following work has been occupied, at 

 intervals, during nearly forty years, in preparing for the press 

 materials for a complete account of the fruit trees and vege- 

 tables cultivated* in the gardens of Great Britain. The result of 

 these inquiries is now presented to the reader, in a form which, 

 it is thought, is so condensed as to comprehend the* greatest 

 quantity of information in the smallest compass, and which at 

 the same time is sufficiently diffuse to render it possible for 

 the reader to acquire as much knowledge as is either impor- 

 tant or indispensable in regard to any particular variety. 

 Those points which are so peculiarly interesting to all Gar- 

 deners, such as the kind of stock upon which a given variety 

 will succeed better than upon another, the comparative 

 value of each kind of fruit, the aspect that it requires, 

 the different names under which it is known in England or 

 elsewhere, the books in which a faithful figure may be 

 found, the purposes for which it is best adapted, the 

 seasons when it is in the greatest perfection, and topics of 

 a similar kind, have been in all cases treated with especial 

 care. This there are few men more competent to do well 

 than Mr. Lindley, whose long practical experience, and am- 

 ple opportunities of investigating such subjects personally 

 during a series of many years, have been such as have rarely 

 fallen to the lot of any one. 



The forcing department has been considered foreign to the 

 purpose of this work, and is therefore "entirely omitted. In 

 recommending particular modes of cultivation, it has been 

 wished to present the reader with one or two methods of op- 

 eration, that experience has shown to be simple and effec- 

 tual, rather than to introduce a great number of different 

 plans, among which the unskilful reader can never know 

 which to select in preference, and where the chances are, 



* In this edition, the p$rt devoted to vegetables is omitted as foreign to the 

 work. Ed. 



