In order to attain this end it is necessary, in the first place, 

 to explain, however briefly, the nature of those vital actions which 

 have a direct reference to cultivation ; and further to show how 

 those facts bear upon the routine of practice of the horticulturist, 

 by making them explain the reason of the practical methods 

 employed in various branches of the gardener's art. 



The first part of this work therefore embraces the principal 

 laws and facts in vegetable physiology, as deduced from the 

 investigations of the botanist ; and the second an apphcation of 

 those laws to practices established by the experience of the 

 horticulturist. 



If the laws comprehended in the first book are correctly 

 explained, and the facts connected with them rightly interpreted, 

 they must necessarily afford, in all cases, the reasons why one 

 kind of cultivation is better than another; and all kinds of 

 practice at variance with those laws must be bad. Seeing that, 

 from the very nature of things, this cannot be otherwise, it 

 follows that, by a careful consideration and due understanding 

 of such laws, the intelligent cultivator will acquire the most 

 certain means of improving his practice. 



B 2 



