XXIV INTRODUCTION. 



such persons, it would form one of the most 

 interesting nomenclatures that has ever ap- 

 peared. We have, under the respective ar- 

 ticles in the present work, named the earliest 

 British cultivators of each separate species of 

 flowers, as far as could be collected. 



The fondness for plants is natural to all 

 men who possess the least sensibility ; and 

 however their attention may be engaged by 

 other pursuits, it generally happens that this 

 predilection shows itself during some period 

 of their lives. Nature seems to have de- 

 signed men for the culture of her works, and 

 to have ordained that we should be born 

 gardeners, since our earliest inclinations 

 lead us to the cultivation of flowers. The 

 infant can no sooner walk, than its first em- 

 ployment is to plant a flower in the earth, 

 removing it ten times in an hour to wherever 

 the sun seems to shine more favourably. The 

 school-boy, in the care of his little plot of 

 ground, lessens the anxious thoughts of the 

 home he has left. In manhood our attention 

 is generally demanded by more active and 

 imperious duties ; but, as age obliges us to 



