INTRODUCTION. 



Vll 



He has, during a long life of varied and active 

 lemployment, made and kept notes of the 

 results of his practice ; and w^hich he now^ in 

 his eighty-third year, is induced to offer to 

 the young gardener and nurseryman, as a fund 

 of information which he trusts will not be 

 found unworthy of their notice. 



The book differs from many others which 

 have preceded it, chiefly in this, — that, 

 whereas former works only give general direc- 

 tions as regards the management of the dif- 

 ferent species, this enters into minute details, 

 not only respecting the species, but of every 

 variety and subvariety which the Author has 

 found to be really worth cultivation. The 

 whole is derived from actual practice ; and 

 nothing advanced, of which the Author cannot 

 vouch for the truth. He has employed the 

 plainest language, as he disapproves of the 

 use of botanical or scientific terms in the de- 

 scriptions of fruit, or of any matter relative 



