By J. C. LOUDON, F.L.S. H.S. &c. AUTHOR OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIAS OF GARDENING AND OF AGRICULTURE, AND LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. PREFACE. THE Gardener's Magazine will be found to have progressively improved in the course of its publication, and this second volume to be of considerably increased interest, compared with the first. For this additional value conferred on our work, we are chiefly indebted to our numerous contributors; and, in some degree, to our own increasing experience as Conductor. To our contributors we offer our best thanks, and request a continuance of their favours. It can hardly be necessary to point to the Table of Contents or the Index, to show the great variety of information contained in this volume; but we may be allowed to direct especial attention to the list of Garden Libraries (p. x.) which have been formed in consequence of our suggestions on the subject of the Education of Gardeners (pp. 108. 244. and 372.). We have no doubt that, as the employers of gardeners see the advantage of having scientific gardeners in preference to mere empirical practitioners, the number of Garden Libraries will be increased; and we entreat all who agree with us in opinion on the subject to make their sentiments known, employers to their gardeners, and gardeners to` their masters, - with a view to this end. The subject of Village Libraries, Labourers' Institutions, and Itinerating Libraries, (p. 248. 373. and 376.) also deserves the consideration and support of all those readers who think with us, that the most effectual source of improvement in art and in society, is the general culture of the human mind. A few enlightened individuals may bring an art to the highest degree of perfection, and may record its principles, and the history of its productions in books; but unless the minds of those who are to practise this art are so far enlightened as to be able to understand and reason upon those principles, and draw proper and useful inferences from that history, improvement can never become generally beneficial to society, or permanently incorporated with the practice of the country. It is this tendency to enlighten the practical gardener that constitutes the principal value of the Gardener's Magazine; and in this view of its object, and with a prospect of its duration for many years, we look forward to a generation of gardeners of superior intellect, character, and happiness, as well as to new and higher sources of enjoyment for the possessors of gardens. London, Bayswater, June, 1827. J. C. L. 204257 Seymour, Mr. J., Carleton Hall, Yorkshire, 295 Sinclair, Mr. Geo., F. L. S., H. S., &c., 225.231 Soulange-Bodin, Le Chevalier, F. H. S., &c. &c., Jardin de Fiomont, near Paris, 224 Stowe, Wm., Esq., Surgeon, Buckingham, 275 Strachan, Mr. James, Clay Hill, Enfield, Strebling, Mr. Isaac, of Mistley, Essex, Taylor, I. Gardener, East Sheen, Surrey, 815 Taylor, Mr. David, Belmont, near Aber- Murray, Mr. Stuart, C. M. H. S., Botanic Nott, Mr. William, Taunton Nursery, 379.392 One of the Imperial Gardeners, Parkin, Mr. Thomas, Thoresby Gardens, Prince, Mr., F.M.H.S., &c., Linnæan Bo- tanic Garden, Flushing, near New York, 90.305 Reed, Mr. James, Broad Street, Bristol, Reid, Mr. Rob., Holme, near Kilmarnock Rentoul, Mr. Wm., Secretary to the Clap- Wilkins, Mr. George, Walton Nursery, Wilmot, Mr. John, F. H. S., Isleworth, Wilson, Mr. John, Welbeck Gardens, Wilson, Mr. William, Merley Gardens, W. R. G., West Riding, Yorkshire, 254. 316. 468 |