PREFACE 



THE late Dr Lindley, when preparing the preface for 

 his father's ' Guide to the Orchard,' wrote the follow- 

 ing : "There are two great considerations to which it 

 is above all things necessary that the attention of the 

 cultivator should be directed namely, AMELIORATION 

 and PROPAGATION." And with this object in view the 

 present handbook has been prepared. Plant -propa- 

 gation is one of the most important branches of cul- 

 tivation as practised in our gardens ; and especially is 

 this so in the case of hybridism and cross-breeding, 

 on the scientific aspects of which so much has been 

 written to the purpose in our time. In this work the 

 practical side of the question has been chosen, since 

 there here seemed a comparatively open field for a 

 work of this kind, which, apart from its primary use 

 as a popular handbook on plant propagation and 

 improvement, might also serve young gardeners as a 

 stepping-stone to works of a higher scientific character, 

 and more especially to those of Charles Darwin. 



F. W. B. 



RAVEN'S VILLA, UPPER TOOTING, S.W., 

 December 13, 1876. 



