PREFACE.

Among the various improvements for which the presentage will hereafter be distinguished, there is none of moreimportance to society than the facility with which almosterery species of learning is now taught; not only as relatesto those exercises adapted to the improvement and em-ployment of youth, but also in the acquirement of the artsand sciences ; and for which, to the honour of the variousprofessors of the present day, we have, as a nation, becomeeminently distinguished. For as the minds of men havebecome enlightened, prejudices have been thrown aside,and new paths traced out, leading more directly to the ob-jects in view.

As the practice of horticulture and agriculture on anextensive scale has been the employment of my life, inwhich I have had occasion to investigate minutely the use-ful and noxious qualities of plants of every description, as

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