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colonist, who wishes to pursue an altered path of husbandry, by 

 adopting some new foreign plants for his culture, can follow up 

 easily enough the enquiry, to which he may be led by the indica- 

 tions now submitted. 



The writer found himself surrounded by some difficulty of 

 drawing the line of demarcation between the plants admissible 

 into this list and those which should be excluded, because the 

 final importance of any particular species, for a particular want, 

 locality or treatment, cannot be fully foretold. Moreover, the 

 field is so ample from which our plants for novel culture may be 

 gathered, that only the first instalment of a suggestive and 

 abridged index could be presented on this occasion ; but it may 

 be supplemented, as well as the former notes on timber trees, 

 should friendly consideration recognize the spirit, in which these 

 suggestions are offered. As an instance of the difficulty to 

 adduce what is most desirable for an enumeration, such as the 

 present, it may be mentioned, that many species of the thousands 

 of foreign grasses would be highly eligible here, either for natu- 

 ralization or for cultural purposes. A few, however, could only 

 be singled out for the present purpose, and this with no other 

 view than leading the occupants of our soil onward in some new 

 direction for their pastoral or agrarian pursuits. 



The plants, which appear to be of primary importance for our 

 rural wants, have been designated in this list with an asterisk. 

 Of these, indeed, many are long since secured by the efforts 

 of numerous colonists and their friends abroad, who strove to 

 enrich our cultural resources ; and in these efforts the writer, so 

 far as his public or private means did permit, has ever endea- 

 voured to share. But although such plants are introduced, they 

 are not in all instances as yet widely diffused, nor in many locali- 

 ties tested. Also, for the sake of completeness, ordinary culture 

 plants appear in this index, as the opportunity seemed an apt 

 one, to offer a few passing remarks on their value. The claims 

 of this contribution on originality must necessarily be very 

 limited. What for ages has engaged the reflection of thousands 

 cannot present absolutely or largely a new field of research. So 



