Lord,
Your Lordship's Most Humble
and Most Obedient Servant,

JOHN EVELYN_.

* * * * *

THE PREFACE

The _Favourable Entertainment which the_ Kalendar _has found,
encouraging the_ Bookseller _to adventure upon_ a Ninth Impression, I
_could not refuse his Request of my Revising, and Giving it the best
Improvement I was capable_, to an Inexhaustible Subject, _as it regards
a Part of_ Horticulture; _and offer some little Aid to such as love a
Diversion so Innocent and Laudable. There are those of late, who have
arrogated, and given the Glorious Title_ of Compleat _and_ Accomplish'd
Gardiners, _to what they have Publish'd; as if there were nothing
wanting, nothing more remaining, or farther to be expected from the
Field; and that_ Nature _had been quite emptied of all her fertile
Store: Whilst those who thus magnifie their Discoveries, have after
all, penetrated but a very little Way into this Vast, Ample, and as
yet, Unknown Territory; Who see not, that it would still require the
Revolution of many Ages; deep, and long_ Experience, _for any Man to
Emerge that Perfect, and Accomplish'd Artist_ Gardiner _they boast
themselves to be: Nor do I think, Men will ever reach the End, and far
extended Limits of the_ Vegetable Kingdom, _so incomprehensible is the
Variety it every Day produces, of the most Useful, and Admirable of all
the Aspectable Works of God; since almost all we_ see, _and_ touch,
_and_ taste, _and_ smell, eat _and_ drink, are clad _with, and_ defended
(_from the Greatest_ Prince _to the Meanest_ Peasant) _is furnished from
that Great and Universal Plantation_, Epitomiz'd _in our_ Gardens,
_highly worth the Contemplation of the most Profound Divine, and
Deepest_ Philosopher.

_I should be asham'd to acknowledge how little I have advanced, could
I find that ever any Mortal Man from_ Adam, Noah, Solomon, Aristotle,
Theophrastus, Dioscorides, _and the rest of Nature's Interpreters, had
ever arriv'd to the perfect Knowledge of any one_ Plant, _or_ Vulgar
Weed _whatsoever: But this perhaps may yet possibly be reserv'd for
another State of Things, and a_ [3]_longer Day; that is_, When Time
shall be no more, but Knowledge shall be encreas'd.

_We have heard of one who studied and contemplated the Nature of_
Bees _only, for_ Sixty Years: _After which, you will not wonder,
that a Person of my Acquaintance, should have spent almost_ Forty,
_in Gathering and Amassing