ORTICULTURE may be divided into four 

 general subjects : Pomology, Olericul- 

 ture, Floriculture and Landscape Horti- 

 culture. Pomology considers the science 

 and culture of fruits, olericulture has to 

 do with vegetable gardening, floriculture 

 grows herbaceous or various small plants for their individual 

 merits as objects of ornament, while landscape horticulture 

 shapes and applies the conceptions of landscape gardening 

 and is well nigh inseparable from it. Each of these subjects 

 may be again divided into many divisions, any one of which 

 is large enough to absorb the thought and practice of a life- 

 time. There are perhaps no branches of business which in- 

 clude so many diverse subjects and practices as horticulture. 

 Even agriculture or general farming, in the restricted sense 

 in which we now use these terms, is much less various in its 

 constitution than this. The breeds and families of domestic 

 animals are many times outnumbered by the species of plants 

 which fall to the domain of horticulture, while all the prac- 

 tices of general agriculture are much fewer and mostly less 

 various than those required of the horticulturist. 



Horticulture considers an immense range of industry and 

 appeals to widely diverse motives and emotions. In par- 

 ticular, it appeals strongly to all the finer instincts, de- 

 manding a high appreciation of expression in nature, and 

 inspiring an elevated feeling for works of art. It is 

 also a vocation of specializations. Particular and explicit 

 knowledge is nowhere more needed than here ; and watch- 



