vi Preface. 



appear, for in most of the literature hitherto devoted to 

 the subject plants entirely unsuitable are named. Thus 

 we find such things as Alnus glandulosa aurea and Ulmus 

 campestris aurea (a form of the common elm) enumerated 

 among subtropical plants by one author. Manifestly 

 if these are admissible almost every species of plant is 

 equally so. These belong to a class of variegated hardy 

 subjects that have been in our gardens for ages, and have 

 nothing whatever to do with subtropical gardening. Two 

 other classes have also purposely been omitted : very 

 tender stove-plants, many of which have been tried in 

 vain in the Paris and London Parks, and such things 

 as Echeveria secunda, which though belonging to a type 

 frequently enumerated amonj, subtropical plants, are, 

 more properly, subjects of the bedding class. But if I have 

 excluded many that I know to be unsuitable, every type 

 of the vegetation of northern and temperate countries has 

 been searched for valuable kinds ; and as no tropical or 

 subtropical subject that is really effective has been 

 omitted, the result is the most complete selection that is 

 possible from the plants now in cultivation. 



No pains have been spared to show by the aid of illus- 

 trations the beauty of form displayed by the various types 

 of plants herein enumerated. For some of the illustra- 

 tions I have to thank MM. Vilmorin and Andrieux, the 

 well-known Parisian firm \ for others, the proprietors of 

 the ' Field ; ' while the rest are from the graceful pencil of 

 Mr. Alfred Dawson, and engraved by Mr. Whymper and 



