Excerpt from A Handbook of Tropical Gardening and Planting: With Special Reference to Ceylon The need for a practical work of this nature, especially adapted for the Tropics, has apparently been long felt, judging by the demand for information on the subjects treated in this handbook. Of books on horticulture in temperate countries, there is no end, but they are generally of little guidance in tropical regions, where the conditions of climate, labour and methods of working are so different. A writer in the Ceylon Observer recently remarked: "How much more attractive and interesting our bungalow gardens and compounds might be made if the right sort of information regarding their care were available. Too often they are tended only by the garden-cooly, who has no pretensions to any knowledge of gardening, and things which grow, do so more by luck than good management." The aim of the author has been, therefore, to supply as concisely as possible and in a manner to suit the practical man in the field or garden, the kind of information which is most generally sought for, not only on horticultural matters, but also on general planting or agricultural subjects. In practice there is no sharp line of distinction between Planting or tropical farming and Horticulture, and the main principles underlying both are the same. "Agriculture in the tropics," said Sir William Thiselton Dyer, "is essentially extended gardening; it has little relation to the agriculture of temperate countries, and its methods are those of horticulture." According to Liebig, "perfect agriculture is the foundation of all trade and industry, the foundation of the riches of state." "Scientific horticulture," said Dr. Bailey, "joins hands with the plant biologists on the one hand, and with commerce on the other." Gardening or horticulture is obviously advancing in Ceylon, as in other tropical countries, and it is being recognised, slowly but surely, that it plays an important part in home adornment and comfort, as well as in rural improvement and sanitation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.