PREFACE. 
Horticulture, it will readily be allowed, is 
one of the most agreeable recreations, and one of 
the most useful arts, with which we are acquaint- 
ed. Besides affording a liealthful and rational 
amusement, it furnishes us with a large propor- 
tion both of the necessaries and luxuries of life. 
Nevertheless, the author of the following pages 
w'ould not have thought himself justified in calling 
the attention of the public to a subject on which 
so much has already been written, had he not 
been conscious that the subject is of so extensive a 
nature that there are some branches of it which 
are not yet fully understood. Every one w'ho 
has been engaged in Horticultural pursuits must 
be fully aware, from painful experience, that the 
Horticulturist has to struggle against almost 
innumerable enemies of the insect race, by which 
all is exertions are frequently rendered abortive. 
The principal object which the author of this 
work proposed to himself was to give such infor- 
mation as would enable the Horticulturist to free 
himself from the most formidable of his insect 
