GARDENS OP HOUTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 181 



heretofore confined to particular localities. They have in- 

 troduced many new and admirable sorts from abroad. The 

 comparative valne^ too^ of numerous fruits and cuKnary 

 vegetables and flowers has been correctly appreciated^ 

 and those which were found worthless or indifferent have 

 received the merited stamp of inferiority and rejection. 

 Besides much work of this kind done effectually, the 

 Horticultural Society of London has sent botanical col- 

 lectors to China, Mexico, and other imperfectly explored 

 regions, and by their agency have introduced many 

 plants, both useful and ornamental. In most of these 

 objects theCaledonian Horticultural Society has zealously 

 co-operated; and notwithstanding the less propitious 

 climate, its distance from the centre of government and 

 commerce, and other difficulties with which it has had to 

 contend, it has been eminently successful in the promo- 

 tion of gardening in Scotland. Both of these societies, 

 as weB. as others in the pro\dnces, have contributed 

 greatly to the diffusion of new and approved kinds of 

 fruits, flowers, and vegetables, by the distribution of 

 grafts, cuttings, and small specimen parcels of seeds. 

 And we must not omit to notice the beneficial effects of 

 the public exliibitions of plants and fruits which have 

 been promoted by horticultural societies, and generally 

 held in their gardens. The prizes given on these occa- 

 sions have proved a great stimulus, not only to the per- 

 fecting of fine individual specimens, but also to the 

 improvement of the general crops ; and while they have 

 elicited and rendered prominent many cultivators of dis- 

 tinguished talent, they have been the means of esta- 

 blishing a standard of excellence in reference to horticul- 

 tural productions which would have been considered 

 visionary forty years ago. In many parts of the country 



