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INTRODUCTION. 



DURING the life of the late MR. ANDREW KNIGHT, he 

 was repeatedly urged by many scientific Horticulturists to 

 collect together and republish all that he had written on 

 Vegetable Physiology and Horticulture; and since his lamented 

 death this wish has again been repeated to his family, and 

 having been seconded by the advice of some of his friends 

 whose pursuits have well qualified them to judge of the 

 probable utility of such a work, it has been determined to offer 

 to the public a selection from the Papers which at various 

 periods he communicated to the Royal and Horticultural 

 Societies, in a form that will render their contents available 

 to many persons by whom the Transactions of these Societies 

 are not attainable. 



Vegetable Physiology is a branch of science which till 

 very lately has not been very extensively cultivated; hence 

 the number of persons competent to judge of the value of 

 Mr. Knight's researches is necessarily limited : but the con- 

 tinual reference that is made to his papers in the works 

 of M. De Candolle, Dutrochet, Du Petit-Thouars, Feburier, 

 Keiser, and other foreign writers on similar subjects, by 



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