DICTIONARY DESCRIBING THE PLANTS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES DESIRABLE FOR THE GARDEN AND EXPLAINING THE TERMS AND OPERATIONS EMPLOYED IN THEIR CULTIVATION WITH A SUPPLEMENT INCLUDING all the nEW PLANTS AND EDITED BY GEORGE W. JOHNSON, EDITOR OF "THE COTTAGE gardener." LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, a PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. Ir is not presumptuous, we think, to express our conviction that this Volume will supply a want which has long existed in gardening literature. We so think because all previous Dictionaries concerning plants are rendered more or less deficient for horticultural purposes by being too much occupied with botanical details; by being too large and expensive for general use; by being too old to include more than a small number of the plants now cultivated; or from being the production of one writer, necessarily imperfect in one or more departments in which his knowledge happened to be deficient. It is believed that THE COTTAGE GARDENERS' DICTIONARY is free from all these objections. Its botanical details are no more than sufficient as a guide to fuller knowledge of the plants; it is the cheapest ever issued from the press; it includes all plants known as desirable for culture at the date of publication; and every detail of cultivation is either from the pen, or has passed under the supervision, of those well-known for appropriate skilfulness. We need only add, that we have endeavoured olearly to explain all the usual gardening occupations and terms; to give accurate information relative to soil and manures, and to detail minutely the culture of each plant; as well as to admit none but such as are either desirable to have in cultivation, or are in some way interesting. It being always satisfactory to know who are our teachers, we think it desirable and just to all parties to state that Mr. BEATON, Gardener to Sir W. Middleton, Bart., has furnished all the headings descriptive of each genus, the derivation of their names, with their botanical classification and nomenclature. To Mr. FISH, Gardener to Colonel Sowerby, we are similarly indebted for the general cultivation of each genus of flowering and ornamental plants; to Mr. ERRINGTON, Gardener to Sir P. Egerton, Bart., for the fruit culture and selection of varieties; to Mr. APPLEBY, Floricultural Manager to Messrs. Henderson, for the same information relative to Florists' Flowers; whilst on Mr. BARNES, Gardener to Lady Rolle, Mr. WEAVER, Gardener to the Warden of Winchester College, and the EDITOR, have devolved the tenants of the kitchen garden. The miscellaneous essays have been furnished by various hands, too numerous and too combined to be particularized; but the Editor does not shrink from being responsible for them. |
