I\TIU)l>rtTI()\\ 



When* in 1805 the first series of forty Plato) of Sklect Orchidaceous Plaxtc was completed, we 

 engaged, in compliance with numerous requests which were then made lo us, to publish a second series of 

 similar Illustrations. Thai pledge wo have now redeemed by the issue of a scries of thirty-nino Plates repre- 

 senting amongst them some of the most charming of the modem additions which have been made lo the 

 Orchid family. We refer without hesitation to the pictures themselves, as bearing out this description of the 

 subjects portrayed, as a choice selection from amongst the many splendid acquisitions which have been and 

 continue to be introduced to our gardens* 



Wc appeal, moreover, to the plates themselves as evidence that, from an artistic point of new, our 

 engagements have been fully met 



Mr. Fitch's happy and facile pencil has brought out, with great success, the points which it was most 

 desirable to set before our subscribers a result which has been aided by the ample size of our page, which, 

 with few exceptions, is adequate to the faithful portrayal of the leading characteristics of the plants illus- 

 trated, without being cumbrous in its dimensions. 



The practical information which accompanies each plaU; is calculated to be of the utmost value to 

 cultivators, especially to those having but a limited experience. As the record of the actual practice of 

 one of the most successful of English trade cultivators, it may be implicitly relied on ; while the knowledge 

 which we have ourselves obtained from many years 1 experience, and which occasionally supplies an 

 additional hint, renders the instructions all the more complete. The descriptive particulars also, being 

 carefully and faithfully drawn up by a well-practised hand, bear their own especial value* 



So well have these Illustrations answered the end wc had in view in commencing them, that we have 

 been urgently requested to extend them to a Third Scries, which, relying oa the support of our subscribers, 

 wc shall be very willing to do. The work was not commenced, nor has it been continued, as a speculation for 

 profit, but as a labour of love ; and in consequence it has always been and will continue to be our object, 

 to throw the value of the subscriptions into the execution and finish of the plntcs, and wc hare on this ground 

 a special claim on the support of those who take an interest in the Orchid family. 



