By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 3 



only, to detect the errors of ignorance, and to expose the 

 misrepresentations of fraud ; the advantages which the pub- 

 lic may ultimately derive from the establishment, will pro- 

 bably exceed the most sanguine hopes of its founders. 



Horticulture, in its present state, may with propriety be 

 divided into two distinct branches, the useful, and the orna- 

 mental : the first must occupy the principal attention of the 

 members of the Society, but the second will not be neglected ; 

 and it will be their object, wherever it is practicable, to 

 combine both. 



. Experience and observation appear to have sufficiently 

 proved, that all plants have a natural tendency to adapt 

 their habits to every climate in which art or accident places 

 them : and thus the Pear-tree, which appears to be a native 

 of the southern parts of Europe, or the adjoining parts of 

 Asia, has completely naturalized itself in Britain, and has 

 acquired, in a great number of instances, the power to ripen 

 its fruit in the early part even of an unfavourable summer : 

 the Crab tree has in the same manner adapted its habits to 

 the frozen regions of Siberia. But when we import either of 

 these fruits, in their cultivated state, from happier climates, 

 they are often found incapable of acquiring a perfect state 

 of maturity even when trained to a south wall. 



As the Pear and Crab tree, in the preceding cases, have 

 acquired powers of ripening their fruits in climates much 

 colder than those in which they were placed by nature, we 

 have some grounds of hope that the Vine and Peach tree 

 may be made to adapt their habits to our climate, and to 

 ripen their fruits without the aid of artificial heat, or the 

 reflection of a wall; and though we are at present little 



