PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 



THE want of a practical and comprehensive work upon 

 Gardening, expressly adapted to this country, has been 

 much felt, I believe, by all who have had the manage- 

 ment of a garden in India. The Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Society of India indeed have long since 

 acknowledged the existence of such a want, by the 

 offers they have repeatedly made of a premium for the 

 best treatise upon the subject that should be presented 

 to them before a certain stated time. These offers have 

 in no single instance met with a response. 



It was not till, after every inquiry possible, I had 

 ascertained that there was no prospect whatever of a 

 work of the kind being undertaken by some other 

 hand, that I resolved upon commencing one myself, 

 arid placing before the Public such amount of informa- 

 tion as, during my hours of recreation and leisure, I 

 have been able to collect upon the subject. 



By a residence of several years at Ferozepore, I had 



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