PREFACE. 
0 
IV 
appear, it has, at leaft, the advantage of 
experience to recommend it, an expe¬ 
rience founded on long and extenfive 
praflice, and clofe attention to the fub- 
jje&; and the fuccefs refulting from the 
methods hereafter defcribed has been, in 
fome meafure, confirmed by the concurrent 
teftimonies of the moft eminent Florifts, 
both of this country and abroad. 
But notwithftanding the long and con¬ 
tinued attention which feveral in England 
and Holland have given to this branch of 
horticulture, the art of cultivating plants 
in general, and flowers in particular, is 
yet fo imperfeftly underftood, and may 
probably long remain to be fo, that an 
extenfive field for improvement and dif- 
covery prefents itfelf to the intelligent 
and 
