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less inteiesting to the British plautei", 1 would earnestly 

 entreat the attention and indulgence of the reader. It is not 

 more than three score years since chemistry and natural 

 history have been successfully cultivated among us, and 

 applied to the improvement of the arts. The ingenious 

 writings, and interesting discoveries of Mr. Knight, the 

 President of the Horticultural Society of London, have done 

 much to turn the public attention to vegetable physiology, 

 as important to the advancement of horticulture. The late 

 very able work of Mr. Keith, on physiological botany, has 

 completely systematized the science ; it has tended to correct 

 the errors, and supply the omissions of former writers, and 

 to bring forward, in one luminous view, both his own discov- 

 eries, and those of foreign nations. 



Let us, therefore, hope, that the present attempt to bring 

 vegetable physiology into notice, by applying it to the practice 

 of Arboriculture, may not be less successful, than that of 

 the applying chemistry to husbandry, which, to the aston- 

 ishment of Europe, has rendered the cultivation of the soil 

 a new art in modern hands. The culture of wood, as has 

 been already observed, in point of rank and importance, 

 certainly stands next to the culture of the soil, and, in point 

 of attraction, it stands a great deal higher, from the delight- 

 ful effects it every where produces ; whether they are seen 

 in the deep seclusion of the grove, the open richness of the 

 park, or the endless charms of woodland scenery. Since 

 the ladies of late have become students of chemistry, it is 

 not too much to expect, that they will be ambitious of 

 attaining proficiency in a science, so much more akin to 

 their own pursuits ; and that country-gentlemen, emulous 

 to profit by so illustrious an example, will not suffer vegeta- 

 ble physiology to be any longer a desideratum, either in 

 their own acquirements, or in those of their gardeners, their 

 foresters, or their land-stewards. Thus, a new era will be 

 brought about in British arboriculture, of which the most 



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