iv ADVERTISEMENT. 



opportunities of studying the nomenclature of Fruits, of attaining a general 

 knowledge of Plants, and the best modes of taking up and packing Trees, and 

 of becoming acquainted with the new and rarer ornamental and useful Trees 

 and Shrubs, upon which decorative gardening is destined in future so much 

 to depend. In many of these establishments he may obtain some practice 

 in laying out grounds, as nurserymen of high repute are often employed as 

 landscape-gardeners. In fact, every gardener wishing to excel in his pro- 

 fession, should spend a couple of years in such establishments, and one at 

 least in a London market-garden. 



To one department of great importance, both to the practical gardener and 

 the amateur, and which has hitherto hardly received the attention it merits 

 in practical works — that of the diseases, insects, and other enemies, to the 

 attacks of which the various products of the garden are liable — especial 

 attention has been paid. Full descriptions have been given of these from the 

 best authorities, supplemented by actual observation, and also full details of 

 the most approved methods of prevention and cure ; while the insects in 

 particular have been much more extensively figured than has, it is believed, 

 ever before been done in any single work, and this on a scale and with a 

 minuteness which will make the identification of them easy even to a com- 

 paratively superficial observer. 



We have thought it expedient to give the European names of culinary 

 vegetables and fruits, more especially the former, on account of our increas- 

 ing intercourse with the Continent, and the quantities of seeds which are 

 yearly brought or sent into this country, and often put into the hands of 

 those unacquainted with the language in which the names are given. 

 Eeaders of such popular Continental works as the "Bon Jardinier," the 

 " Utrechtsche Hovinier," " Garten Zietung," " Verstandige Gartner," and 

 similar books on gardening, may be assisted by a reference to the paragraph 

 General Remarhs at the end of each section. 



Throughout the whole of this department of our subject, it will be our 

 special aim to enter into all necessary minuteness of detail; to avoid all techni- 

 calities of term, or, wherever we are compelled to employ these, to append full 

 explanations of them ; and, in short, to make the " Book of the Gaeden " 

 as to its cultural department, so precise and complete in all its directions, 

 that it may suffice to the tyro as his guide, from the most rudimental opera- 

 tions of gardening onward, and render the amateur in a great degree inde- 

 pendent of other assistance ; while, to the experienced gardener, we trust it 

 will be found the best and most practical work of reference extant. 



