11. 
INTRODUCTION. 
natural history, that to make any proficiency in the one, the student 
must, in some degree, become familiar with the other. .Botany, for 
instance, is not now the same thing it was little more than two hun¬ 
dred years ago :—a mere recollection of the names or medical qua¬ 
lities of plants—it enters minutely into their structure, habit, and 
peculiarities, without a knowledge of which, many of our valuable 
introductions would soon be irrecoverably lost. When these are 
well understood, in connection with a knowledge of their native 
country, the cultivator has a pretty correct idea of the temperature 
they require, the soil in which they will best thrive, and the most 
proper mode of propagation. A gardener, however, should not stop 
here; if the nature of the food of plants be chemically considered, the 
constituents of soils and water, conclusions the most beneficial and 
interesting will be the result; indeed, a gardener should have re¬ 
course to science for every thing. Since the nature and habits of 
insects may now be studied with facility, they should by no means 
be lost sight of, particularly such as commit the greatest depredations 
in our orchards and gardens. It is too late now to sit down content¬ 
ed with the supposition that they are generated by an eastern or 
southern wind, and that therefore to prevent their ravages, is beyond 
the reach of human means. 
All insects originate in parents, and the greater part come from 
eggs, which by an extraordinary instinct are deposited by the parents, 
when in the perfect state, upon the plants most suited for their 
future existence. These are generally called caterpillars or grubs, 
according as they possess or are destitute of legs. Caterpillars which 
have legs, feed, for the most part, upon leaves and fruits; grubs, or 
those without legs, attack the roots. It is an object of importance to 
the gardener, that he be able to distinguish, hy the appearance of 
the eggs or caterpillars he sees, the nature and habits of the insect 
to which they belong. This will, doubtless, assist him greatly in the 
means he may adopt to destroy them effectually. Another class of 
depredators, are the mollusca, or different kinds of snails; some of 
these feed upon our choicest fruits, others upon the leaves of our 
most valuable plants, whilst others attack the roots; others again are 
totally inoffensive. To elucidate these subjects, and to spread gene¬ 
ral knowledge amongst all who delight in the occupation of gardening, • 
we commence the third volume of the Horticultural Register, feel¬ 
ing assured, that our readers will enjoy a secret pleasure in dissemi¬ 
nating the knowledge of every useful discovery they may make, and 
a still greater pleasure if they be the means of augmenting the hap¬ 
piness of human life. 
