encouragement to this art, and to extend the 

 best possible system of it to every part of the 

 kingdom. By means of this company, what 

 is discovered in one place, may be sent post 

 as it were to others, through the remotest 

 corners of the dominions, without travelling 

 as before, by ages. Besides this advantage, 

 individuals have sent out men of science to 

 every quarter of the known world in search 

 of plants, which have since been so diver- 

 sified and multiplied, as to make it almost 

 difficult to discover more varieties. 



The author has ascertained, by the assist- 

 ance of the Hortus Kewensis, that since the 

 discovery of the new world, we have pro- 

 duced 2,345 varieties of trees and plants from 

 America, and upwards of 1,700 from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, in addition to many 

 thousands which have been brought from 

 China, the East Indies, News Holland, va- 

 rious parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, 

 until the list of plants now cultivated in 

 this country exceeds 120,000 varieties. 



But flowers have principally engaged the 

 care and study of students in horticulture 

 and botany, while fruits have been in com- 

 parison rather too much neglected, though 

 of the two the latter are intrinsically the 

 most valuable, for since the more frequent 



