
          Early Hort. Lit

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PERIOD LIMITATION

Possibly a word is needed about limiting the period to books before 1800. This is
an arbitrary date, but fits the situation and the special need. Without going into detail
it may be said that towards the end of the 18th century horticultural literature
not only became more voluminous, but began to be more specialized and more practical, so
that some such 19th century works as those of Loudon remained in use for the better part
of a hundred years. Bibliographical facilities became more adequate, and the bulk of the
literature is fairly covered and easily identified. Much of it has been collected under
special topics, while a great deal of it is unworthy of subject treatment. But the situation
is quite otherwise with the first two or three centuries of horticultural publication.
These works have little subject interest today, except those of botanical application,
which are still more or less consulted, and are mostly described in Pritzel's
“Thesaurus Literaturae Botanicae” (Ed.2, 1872), and in many library catalogs. Those are
included here as part of the whole body of horticultural literature, but they are not the
raison d'être of this list. It is the merely horticultural works that are no longer used,
rarely referred to or almost unknown, or perhaps vaguely mentioned in authorities such as
Haller’s “Bibliotheca Botanica” (1771-72), or Hohberg’s "Georgica Curiosa" (1682), which
stand in need of exact bibliographical description. Although such ancient books on gardening
and fruit growing now have little scientific value, they are sometimes important to
the student of the history of botany or gardening; hence this list was meant to serve the
needs of the scholar. Its utility for the ordinary library is little or none, but if carried
out as a final authority in its field, it should be a valuable aid to catalogers in
old and large libraries, as well as to buyers and sellers of old books in this branch of
literature, which has many devotees.

POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS

The foregoing observations may suggest that the present list is just an amorphous
mass, without purpose or application. The real fact probably is that, because it was intended
as a collection of materials rather than a printable bibliography , its base of selection
has always been vague, even without the addition of irrelevant data on plant history
and introduction. It may be said to comprise some materials for several more or
less distinct productions, as for instance;
        