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LXVII. Notice respecting several Vegetables used as Esculents 

 in North America. In a Letter to Richard Anthony 

 Salisbury, Esq. F.H.S. By M. Joseph Correa de 

 Serra, F.R. S. $c. 



Read July 17,1821. 



Dear Sir, 



It is impossible to foresee the full extent of happy conse- 

 quences which may result from the labours of the Horti- 

 cultural Society. It is the first attempt that I know of, to- 

 wards a confederation of science and practice, directed to 

 raise Horticulture above the state of an empiric art, such as 

 it has been heretofore. Now the encreasing capital of bo- 

 tanical knowledge will furnish new objects on which to try 

 the proceedings of cultivation, and the daily progress of 

 vegetable physiology will no doubt direct these proceedings 

 by clearer and safer principles, extending their application 

 to almost every plant which nature has made fit for the use 

 of man. 



I wish this example, first given by your glorious Island, 

 may be followed by all other civilized nations, and propa- 

 gate the taste for such enlightened pursuits, which add to 

 the comforts and pleasures of mankind, unaccompanied by 

 any counterbalancing evil. If in future I enjoy sufficient 

 leisure, I will try to concur, myself, in an undertaking so 

 analogous to my way of thinking and feeling. For the pre- 

 sent, I venture to offer to you the enumeration of a few 



