VI INTRODUCTION. 



general reader, than an accurate botanical synopsis, which 

 would have been known to the botanist alone. All that 

 we have described and recommended have, with a few 

 exceptions, passed under our own observation, and are 

 such as are worthy of cultivation, either for beauty of 

 flower, foliage or habit, together with those celebrated in 

 arts and medicine. Many may, possibly, have passed 

 unobserved, either from their being very generally known 

 or difficult to obtain ; but in no case has there been sup- 

 pression from business prejudices. Where the words 

 " our collections," occur, they are meant for those of the 

 county generally. 



All our observations have been guided by dint of prac- 

 tice ; and, although others may differ, this is designedly 

 and professedly given as the result of our own experience. 

 The plan lakl down is our own routine of culture ; the 

 soils are those which we adopt ; but, at the same time, 

 conceding that every art and profession is subject to im- 

 provement, and none more so than American horticulture. 

 The table of soils was originally constructed at the expense 

 of much investigation and labour, and has, also, in this 

 edition, undergone considerable improvement. To every 

 one that has but a single plant, it will be found invaluable. 

 Although the publications in Europe on Gardening and 

 Floriculture are profuse, yet many of their directions, 

 when practised in the United States, prove almost a dead 

 letter, not so with their architectural and horticultural 

 designs. The estates of the wealthy are susceptible of 

 great improvement ; they want more of the picturesque, 

 and (to use the word of the veteran pioneer of horticul- 

 ture) gardenesque effect, to relieve their premises from 

 the monotonous erections and improvements which seem 

 to govern all. On culture, a work adapted to the climate 

 must (and no other can) be the guide in this country : on 

 this account, a work like the present has been a desidera- 

 tum to aid the very rapid advancement of the culture of 

 flowers among the intelligent of our flourishing republic. 



R. BUIST. 

 PHILADELPHIA, July, 1845. 



