xii INTRODUCTION. 



equipped to reap the reward of their industry and natural 

 ability, while others who failed would be relegated to their proper 

 sphere in the horticultural profession. Various associations are 

 doing their best in several parts of the country to make up, in 

 some degree, for this crying want, by offering inducements to 

 young gardeners and others to compose essays on horticultural 

 subjects, for which they are awarded prizes and certificates. 

 These, however, are a very indifferent substitute for a properly 

 equi^jped curriculum, which would enable them to obtain a 

 thorough knowledge of the theory and jiractice of horticultvire, 

 and thus be the better able to understand and successfully 

 overcome the many difficulties which beset the young and 

 inexperienced. 



Horticultural exhibitions are valuable object-lessons to the 

 aspiring but uninitiated tyro, and form an excellent medium 

 for learning what can be attained towards perfection in Horti- 

 culture by a diligent application of .skill and industry. So far 

 as the circumstances and his knowledge will allow, they furnish 

 to the intelligent student a good criterion of the various points 

 of merit in the different classes of exhibits. This phase of the 

 subject is, however, capable of much improvement. The re- 

 mark is often heard at flower-shows, " Why has the prize been 

 awarded to this in preference to that?" and such questions 

 may, as a rule, be but the outcome of ignorance on the part of 

 the general public ; but the fact must be remembered that the 

 exhibitors are often as ignorant as the others of the relative 

 value of the points upon which the awards have been decided, 

 as no data of any value exist for their enlightenment. One 

 of the chief objects of an exhibition is the all-round improve- 

 ment of the articles exhibited, which we may safely say has 

 been always kept in view and fairly well accomplished by hor- 

 ticulturists. 



Most intelligent people do not now visit flower-shows for 

 the sole purpose of merely admiring gigantic and beautiful 

 specimens, similar in most respects to those they have so often 

 seen on the same occasions in every part of the country, but to 

 scrutinise and note the various points of merit which one exhi- 

 bit displays over another, and for the possession of which it has 



