PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 



THE Author of the following work has been occupied, 

 at intervals, during nearly forty years, in preparing for 

 the press materials for a complete account of the fruit 

 trees and vegetables cultivated in the gardens of Great 

 Britain. The result of these enquiries is now pre- 

 sented to the reader, in a form which, it is thought, is 

 so condensed as to comprehend the greatest quantity 

 of information in the smallest compass, and which at 

 the same time is sufficiently diffuse to render it pos- 

 sible for the reader to acquire as much knowledge as is 

 either important or indispensable in regard to any 

 particular variety. Those points which are so pecu- 

 liarly interesting to all Gardeners, such as the kind of 

 stock upon which a given variety will succeed better 

 than upon another, the comparative value of each kind 

 of fruit, the aspects that it requires, the different 

 names under which it is known in England or else- 

 where, the books in which a faithful figure may be 

 found, the purposes for which it is best adapted, the 

 seasons when it is in the greatest perfection, and topics 

 of a similar kind, have been in all cases treated with 

 especial care. This there are few men more compe- 

 tent to do well than Mr. Lindley, whose long practical 

 experience, and ample opportunities of investigating such 

 subjects personally during a series of many years, have 

 been such as have rarely fallen to the lot of any one. 



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