126 



Annals of Horticulture. 



word is used in landscape-gardening. In America the word 

 is commonly restricted to a comparatively small area which is 

 used for the close cultivation of flowers and kitchen-garden 

 vegetables ; but this use of it is erroneous and without war- 

 rant. Gardening and horticulture are synonymous terms. 



The exact meaning of the word horticulture, however, must 

 be determined by its general application. Lindley defines it 

 as " that branch of knowledge which relates to the cultivation, 

 multiplication, and amelioration of the vegetable kingdom." 

 It appears never to have been understood in this broad sense, 

 however; for this definition includes all the cereals and forage- 

 plants, which have always been regarded as the particular 

 property of general agriculture. The best understanding of 

 the term is to be derived from its use in journals, societies, 

 schools and experiment stations, and it is gratifying to know 

 that it has always been used by these 1 istitutions in one 

 sense — to include the arts and sciences which immediately un- 

 derlie the cultivation of fruits, kitchen-garden vegetables, flow- 

 o eof ers an< ^ °t ner ornamental plants. These are the fields which 

 horticul- all professors of horticulture are understood to cover, and 

 ture. Yyhich all general horticultural journals include. 



It may happen, however, that plants which in some coun- 

 tries fall to the care of the horticulturist, may in others be 

 the property of the farm rather than the garden ; and so it 

 comes that, while the general definition of horticulture may be 

 easily drawn, there are many conflicts in the details, and the 

 lines must be arbitrary in some cases. This fact is well illus- 

 trated in the case of potatoes in America. The Irish or 

 round potato is held by both horticulturists and agriculturists, 

 although the index of experiment station literature preparing 

 by the Office of Experiment Stations places it — and rightly, 

 I think — under agriculture ; but the sweet-potato has always 

 fallen to horticulture, although it would be difficult upon any 

 other than arbitrary grounds, sanctioned by custom, to retain 

 it there. 



Horticulture, then, readily separates itself into three great 

 divisions — fruits, vegetables, and flowers ; and there is also 

 a fourth division of it which relates to the care and cultivation 

 of ornamental plants in their relation to landscape, and which 

 has been called landscape-horticulture. Landscape-garden- 



