FOREWORD XV 
a manner as to prove interesting and instructive to those 
who have not had the same facilities offered them. 
The art of plant propagation is of very ancient date, 
it having been successfully practised so long as we 
have any historical records. At the present time it has 
so developed and improved that it may reasonably claim 
to be associated with science in its different bearings on 
plant life in widely distributed regions. The utility and 
absolute necessity of agriculture and horticulture for the 
benefit, happiness, and even existence, of civilised man 
have been so often dealt with that it would be difficult to 
introduce any new features of interest that have not 
been explained many times before. 
For easy reference each section of this manual will be 
dealt with separately, and will be followed by a neces- 
sarily brief enumeration of important and popular plants, 
with the best methods of increasing them. 
