1135. The whole of gardening, as an art of culture, is but a varied developement of the above fundamental practices, all founded in nature, and for the most part rationally and satisfactorily explained on chemical and physiological principles. Hence the great necessity of the study of botany to the cultivator; not in the limited sense in which the term is often taken, as including mere nomenclature and classification, but in that extended signification of which we have endeavoured, in this chapter, to present a general outline. Those who would enter more minutely into the subject will have recourse to the excellent works of Lindley, particularly to his Theory of Horticulture, and to De Candolle's Physiologic Vegetale; but of all the works published on the subject the Theory of Horticulture is decidedly the best.
