INTRODUCTION. 



THE cultivation of plants and flowers is one of the 

 most rational occupations, as being most conducive to 

 health and happiness, that can possibly take up our 

 attention. 



Every true admirer of plants and flowers can bear 

 ample testimony to the pleasing and soothing asso- 

 ciations accompanying the culture of the fair progeny 

 of Flora. How delightful ! and how many happy and 

 cheerful thoughts are created in the mind, by simply 

 taking a stroll or walk through the flower-garden, 

 pleasure-grounds, or along the margin of the woods, 

 in a summer morning, when the plants are still 

 bathed in dew, and bedecked in silvery drops, and 

 when all around is still and silent, save the deep 

 and distant murmur of the ocean, and the waves 

 beating heavily upon the surrounding shores ; or, 

 when the feathered melodists have commenced their 

 morning carol ; or when the sun begins to shine on the 

 neighbouring hills, and already rapidly advancing in 



