

EDITOR'S TABLE. 



an old battered tia tea-pot and a leaky japaned mug; and yet, in defiance of these rude imple- 

 ment?, om* flowers grew and the garden blossomed in the wilderness; and there, sheltered from 

 sun and shower, among the bowery honeysuckles, we sat reclined on the green turf bank, listen- 

 ing to the poems and tales that my two eldest sisters used to relate. Even then history was the 

 theme that most delighted those two most remarkable sisters,* and many was the tale of thrilling 

 interest that was recited to the juvenile auditors, who little thouglit that those talents were at a 

 more distant date to claim the approbation of an applauding public. 



Many years after this, I revisited the little lane. A few crocusses and daffodils, choked with 

 long grass and weeds, were the only flowers that remained to "mark where a garden had been." 

 I stooped and drank of the little rill and picked a nosegay of sweet violets as a memento of the 

 haunts of my childhood. 



Tell me, ye who sigh for the crowded ball-room and gay theatre, what are the pleasures of the 

 world compared to the memory of days spent in early youth among the Flowers of May. 



Several articles (among them the proceedings of the Pennsylvania Horticultural 

 Society) prepared for this number are crowded out. "We shall endeavor to meet all demands 

 upon our pages next month. 



NotictJS of 33oolts, ^amptlttj?, ^t. 



The NoExn American Stlva : Or a Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, 

 considered particularly with respect to their use in the Arts, and their introduction into commerce ; to which is added 

 a description of the most useful of the European Trees. Illustrated by 15G copperplate engravings, by Eedonte, 

 BBSSA,ifcc. Translated from tiie French of F. Anpke-w MiCHAux. With Notes by J. Jay Smitu. In three volumes 

 Published by Eobebt Peaesall Smith, Philadelphia. 



We are happy to learn that the superb edition of this great national work published by 

 ITr. Smith, and which has already been noticed in the Horticulturist^ (volume 6, page 541,) 

 is in such demand that copies cannot be supplied as fast as they are called for. This speaks 

 well for the growth of taste among the American people and for the interest they are taking 

 in the productions of their own forests. It is a work that deserves the most complete 

 success, not only for the important information which it contains, but for its elegance. The 

 style of the engravings is good, and the coloring, done in this country, is, in many respects, 

 equal to the original French edition. Those editions have long been out of print, com- 

 manding, before this appeared, no less than one hundred dollars a copy ; that price was 

 offered to our late American Ambassador in London for Mioiiaux alone. The present 

 edition, better translated than the English one which appeared in Paris, is now to be 

 procured for ticenty-four dollars ; and with N'uttall's Continuation, also, in three superb 

 volumes, the whole is offered for forty. Jive dollars. 



Prom the nature of this work it can never become a " common book ;" indeed, to possess 

 it will always confer a sort of distinction. It is even now somewhat difficult to procure a 

 copy of this new edition, so much time is necessarily employed in coloring the plates by 

 hand, as so few artists exist in this country who can be trusted to work upon them. They 

 give regular support to a number of ladies and gentlemen who do little else than color from 

 morning till night. The result is pictures entirely fit to be framed for ornamenting a draw- 

 ing-room. By a little study of its valuable plates and comprehensive letter press, all may 

 identify the products of our splendid forests, and learn to love what is so beautiful and 

 worthy of study. If it were only to be able to know exactly aU our American Oaks, or if 



* Elizabeth and Agnes Steicklaitd, authoresses of the Queens of England and Scotland. 



