it has run a course of unprecedented length, appearing in 

 monthly numbers with the utmost regularity; and, notwith- 

 standing the injury it has sustained by a host of rival publi- 

 cations, the majority of which have been but of ephemeral 

 duration, it has maintained its ground, we trust we may 

 say, with undiminished usefulness, and with increased beauty 

 of execution, through a period of fifty-seven years ! In this 

 extended work has been given a mass of Botanical and 

 Horticultural information, accompanied by four thousand 

 coloured plates, which, as has been justly said by a most 

 competent judge* of the earlier volumes, have " more 

 diffused a taste for unsophisticated nature and science than 

 any other publication." u It was designed," the same 

 author continues, " to be a general depository of garden 

 plants, whether previously figured or not in other works ; 

 but it has often had the advantage of giving entire novelties 

 to the public, and it is in every respect worthy of its author. 

 Its sale has been extensive beyond all former example, and 

 it has rewarded its contriver with pecuniary emolument, as 

 well as with merited celebrity, and is still continued with 

 unabated utility." This was written in 1819 :— the latter 

 part of the sentence we trust is still not undeserved : we 

 wish we could say that the surviving heirs of the family of 

 Mr. Curtis, to whom the copyright devolved, now derived 

 equal advantage from it : for, assuredly, as this kind of 

 work originated in the late Mr. Curtis, and led to the 

 numerous imitators who have followed in his wake, and 

 was commenced with so much energy and taste ; so, nei- 

 ther, has anything been wanting on the part of the pre- 

 sent proprietor to make it still equally worthy of the 

 public patronage. 



The splendid plant here represented has now been for 

 some time known in our gardens; but is not on that 

 account the less deserving a figure in the present work, nor 

 of the high number of plates to which the work has at- 

 tained. It is the most splendid of all our known species 

 of Fuchsia, office growth, and a ready and constant flow- 

 erer except m the winter months, when, in the greenhouse 

 at least, it loses most of its foliage, and has a shabby 

 appearance : but, in the spring, it is rapidly clothed again 

 with leaves, and the plants may then be put into the open 



border 



r lu ir I AM f f E A Smitii » m hl * Memoir of Mr. Samuel Curtis, in Rees' 

 Cyclopedia, Art. Curtis. 



