PREFACE. 



AVING, some few years ago, been associated in 

 llie conducfl of a journal devoted to horticulture, 

 I amassed for literary purposes much of the 

 material made use of in the present volume. 

 Upon the discontinuance of the journal, I re- 

 solved to classify and arrange the plant lore 

 thus accumulated, with a view to its subsequent publication, and 

 I have since been enabled to enrich the collecftion with much Con- 

 tinental and Indian lore (which I believe is quite unknown to the 

 great majority of English readers) from the vast store to be found 

 in Signor De Gubernatis' volumes on plant tradition, a French 

 edition of which appeared two years ago, under the title of La 

 Mythologie des Plantes. To render the present work comprehensive 

 and at the same time easy of reference, I have divided the volume 

 into two secflions, the first of which is, in point of fa(5l, a digest of 

 the second; and I have endeavoured to enhance its interest by 

 introducing some few reprodu(5lions of curious illustrations per- 

 taining to the subjecfts treated of. Whilst preferring no claim for 

 anything beyond the exercise of considerable industry, I would 

 state that great care and attention has been paid to the revision 

 of the work, and that as I am both author and printer of my 

 book, I am debarred in that dual capacity from even palliating 

 my mistakes by describing them as "errors of the press." In 

 tendering my acknowledgments to Prof. De Gubernatis and other 

 authors I have consulted on the various branches of my subjecft, 

 I would draw attention to the annexed list of the principal works 

 to which reference is made in these pages. 



RICHARD FOLKARD, Jun. 



Crickli . OD, August, 1SS4. 



