EXPLANATION OF THE PICTURESQUE PLATES. 



Milton has given us a fine description of the most perfect garden. 



Through Eden went a river large^ 



Nor chang'd his course, but through the shaggy hill 

 Pass'd underneath ingulph'd, for God had thrown 

 That mountain as this garden mound, high rais'd 



Upon the rapid current 



from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks 



Rolling on orient pearl, and sands of gold, 

 With mazy error under pendent shades, 

 Ran fruitfulness, visiting each plant, 

 Flowerd worthy of Paradise, which not nice art 

 In hedd and curioud hiotd, but Nature's boon 

 Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, 

 Both where the morning sun first warmly smote 

 The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade 



Imbrown'd the noon-tide bow'rs Thud wa6 this place 



A happy deat of various view 



So in our PICTURESQUE botanical plates the reader must not expect to see yew trees 

 cut into various forms^ long avenues of upright timber^ gravel-walks meeting to some circular 

 bason of water^ or a cascade playing its forced part^ statues stationed at the four corners of a 

 smooth carpet of turf, labyrinths, boats on the water fashioned like a swan, cards to keep the 

 calyxes from bursting, upright sticks, and regular disposition, that place where Leisure 



a 



In trim garden takes his pleasure'' 



But each scenery is appropriated to the subject. Thus in the night-hlowing Cereus you have 

 the moon playing on the dimpled water, and the turret-clock points XII, the hour at night 

 when this flower is in its full expanse. In the large-flowering Mimosa, first discovered on the 

 mountains of Jamaica, you have the humming birds of that country, and one of the aborigines 

 struck with astonishment at the peculiarities of the plant. In the Canada Lily there is expressed 

 the shade it delights in, with a sky whose clouds yet contain snow within their bosom. In the 

 narrow-leaved Kalmia, which comes forth under the same zone, but at an earlier season, the 

 mountains are still covered with their fleecy mantle. The nodding Renealmia, on the con- 

 trary, has a warm sky, and cocoa-nut trees skirt the distant scenery. The Auricula is repre- 

 sented as flourishing on Alpine mountains, when the utility of their banner becomes conspicuous. 

 Li the Dodecatheon, or American Cowslip, a sea view is given, and a vessel bearing a flag 

 of that country: the same is shewn by a butterfly in the plates of the ohliqne-leaved Begonia; 

 and the Pontic Rhododendron. In the Chinese Limodoron, and the Indian Canna, are 

 represented the pagodas of the East. The Tulips and Hyacinths are placed in Holland, 

 where these flowers are particularly cultivated, embellishing a level country. The Aloe erects, 

 in contrast, its stately form among mountains, and the height and shape of the whole plant 

 may be seen in the back-ground. In the maggot-hearing Stapelia you will find represented 

 a green African snake, and a blow-fly in the act of depositing her eggs in the flower, with the 

 maggots produced from this cause. The clouds are disturbed, and every thing looks wild and 

 sombre about the dragon Arum, a plant equally poisonous as foetid. In the ivhite Lily, where 

 a dark back-ground was obliged to be introduced to relieve the flower, there is a break, pre- 

 sentino- to the view a temple, the only kind of architecture that can be admitted in a garden. 

 Hence the several species of Passion-flowers are seen clambering up pillars, reaching to 

 different heights. As each of these beauties of the vegetable race are carefully dissected, it is 

 hoped, that the rigid botanist will excuse the author, who, striving at universal approbation, has 



thus endeavoured to unite the 



'^ Utile Dulci." 



Hon. 



