PREFACE. 
We have now reached the close of another year’s labours, and it is 
highly gratifying to us to perceive that a taste for Horticultural 
pursuits is every where on the increase. Perhaps, without exposing 
ourselves to the charge of either vanity or presumption; we may 
take some degree of credit for having attracted more attention to so 
interesting a subject. The extensive and constantly increasing sale 
of the Register is at least evidence that our labours are approved, 
and the urgent demand for reprints of the early numbers is to us a 
most gratifying circumstance, and eminently calculated to excite us 
to still greater diligence in supplying whatever is novel or useful in 
every department of the work. 
We feel confident that this second volume will, in many respects, 
be found much superior to the first. This improvement, however, is 
mainly attributable to the increased efforts of our valued correspon¬ 
dents. We may, without disparagement to other contributors, direct 
particular attention to the papers furnished by Mr. Stafford, on the 
steaming and ventilation of Forcing-houses, and on the destruction 
of the Red Spider. Mr. Stafford, Mr. Mearns, and others, have also 
ably detailed and elucidated the culture of vines in pots, a practise 
which cannot be too highly recommended. Some valuable remarks 
on the culture of the striped Housainee Melon, by the Author of the 
Domestic Gardeners’ Manual, likewise deserve especial attention, 
but his papers on Horticultural Chemistry, begun in this volume, 
and to be continued in the next, are of the first importance. Nor 
can any essay indeed, coming from so able a writer, and so skilful an 
investigator, be devoid of interest. Our own remarks on the culture 
of Annuals, Biennials, Rhubarb, Cherries, Pears, &c., together with 
selections of beautiful plants for both greenhouses and flower borders, 
however imperfect they may be, will not, we hope, be without their 
use. Those furnished on the peculiarities of the structure of plants, 
will, at least, afford amusement, if not instruction, to those who are 
curious in nature’s secrets. The condensed form of the extracts will 
