OF

CALIFORNIA

GENERAL INTRODUCTORY

OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS.

THE study of the Physiology of Plants, by dissection, microscopical examination, and chemical analysis, has of late much occupied the attention of our Horticultural Philosophers; particularly Mr. Knight and Mrs. Ibbetson (a lady who has studied the Organism of Plants, aided by a powerful Solar Microscope, and whose observations are published in a series of papers in Nicholson's Vid Philosophical Journal); but in their attempts to apply their theories to practice, they do not appear to have been successful; they have overlooked those. simple habits or laws, which lead to the grand object of horticulture; and, consequently, their labours have not been productive of any great improvement to the practical gardener.

Hitt appears to have had a clearer conception of the course or flowing of the Sap in Trees, than any other author, and grounding his practice on this, he has commenced his instructions for training them, on correct principles; but his Plates exhibit such figures as are not conformable to the laws of

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