_COMPRISING DIRECTIONS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS, AND ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE SPECIES OF FRUITS, VEGETABLES, FLOWERS AND ORNAMENTAL PLANTS KNOWN TO BE IN THE MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA_
ASSISTED BY MANY EXPERT CULTIVATORS AND BOTANISTS
In Four Quarto Volumes, Illustrated with over Two Thousand Original Engravings
This monumental work, the most comprehensive review of the vegetable world yet made by an American, is now in the press. Though distinctly an American work, not only plants indigenous to the North American continent are mentioned, but also all the species known to be in the horticultural trade in North America, of whatever origin. It is really a survey of the cultivated plants of the world.
The Editor, Professor L. H. Bailey, has been gathering material for this Cyclopedia for many years. He has enlisted the coöperation of men of attainments, either in science or practice everywhere, and the Cyclopedia has the unique distinction of presenting for the first time, in a carefully arranged and perfectly accessible form, the best knowledge of the best specialists in America upon gardening, fruit-growing, vegetable culture, forestry, and the like, as well as exact botanical information. It is all fresh, and not a rehash of old material. No precedent has been followed; the work is upon its own original plan.
Many scientific botanical authors of justly high repute decline to give attention to the important characters of _cultivated_ plants, confining their work to the species in the original forms only. Professor Bailey takes the view that a subject of commercial importance, one which engages the attention and affects the livelihood of thousands of bright people, is decidedly worthy the investigation of the trained botanist. In the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, therefore, very full accounts are given of the botanical features of all important commercial plants, as the apple, cabbage, rose, etc. At the same time, practical cultivators submit observations upon culture, marketing, and the like, and frequently two opinions are presented upon the same subject from different localities, so that the reader may have before him not only complete botanical information, but very fully the best practice in the most favorable localities for the perfection of any fruit or vegetable or economic plant.