PEEFACE. IX 



more convenient to believe than to investigate and hnow 

 whether a declaration is true or false, that we have com- 

 paratively few thorough and careful investigators of the 

 phenomena of plant life. 



Horticulture as a science is as yet in its infancy, and 

 while we know something of the botanical relationships 

 of plants as exhibited in the floral organs and vai-ious 

 other appendages and parts, there is yet much to be 

 learned of their chemical and mechanical affinities. In 

 the hybridizing and crossing of species and varieties, 

 and, perhaps, the intermingling of genera, there is a wide 

 field open for investigation and experiment, from which 

 very valuable and important results may confidently be 

 expected ; and while I have devoted only a limited space 

 to this subject, enough has probably been said to show 

 the way in which operations should be performed. 



The usual incentive to investigation is a desire to know, 

 and a doubt often becomes a germ of knowledge and an 

 aid to progress. In this way have emanated most of the 

 greatest discoveries of all ages. When one has become 

 sufficiently interested in a subject to inquire and inves- 

 tigate, he enters upon the true and only road to actual 

 knowledge. 



In endeavoring to explain some of the physiological 

 laws and principles which govern the growth of plants, I 

 have not placed implicit confidence in the statements of 

 those who are usually considered eminent vegetable 

 physiologists, for it appears to be a common failing with 

 the authors of such works to state definitely that a thing 

 is thus and so, with seldom or never an if, but, or other 

 modifying word that would indicate it was possible for 

 the author to be mistaken, hence the gravest errors — if 

 we call them by no worse name — have been widely dis- 

 seminated and ei"edited as absolute facts. I have stated 

 only what ray own experience among plants has led me 

 to believe to be facts, without presuming upon the 



