THE 



AMERICAN 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



DECEMBER, 1835. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Autumnal Cryptogamic Plants, By J. L. R^^^^,.^^. 



Winter, with its icy magnificence, has at length begun, 

 and we have retired from the pleasant walks of the gar- 

 den and the dehghtful rambles over hill and dale, and through 

 the tangled wood, to the warm fireside. A great, though 

 usual change has taken place in the vegetable world; the green- 

 house and conservatory must now impart that instruction through 

 their many-leaved and sybil-tongued inmates, which was but 

 a few weeks ago breathed forth from every green and liv- 

 ing thing. We talk much of the solitude of nature, and 

 of the ravages of dreary winter ; of the sad and fading livery 

 which she puts on ; of the melancholy reflections which the 

 departing year calls up. And yet is it so .'' Is any thing 

 imperfect in her operations. The fault lies with ourselves, 

 and not with her ; — harmony, beauty, order, excellence, ever 

 mark her operations. The unchanging order of the rolling 

 year should, to a reflecting mind, bear much that is good and 

 instructive. Point out, if you can, aught that is not in per- 

 fect harmony with order and wise design. Each month, each 

 day, has its peculiar source of happiness, and is capable of 

 affording, to such a mind, that genuine and refined delight 

 which especially belongs to the study of the natural world. 



The month which has just past, concluded the unusually 

 fine autumn of the present year. The late rich display of the 

 autumnal " King of Flowers," the gorgeous dahlia, has been 

 unequalled for several years in this section of the country. 

 Some of these plants are still,* in sheltered situations, dis- 



•November 7th. 

 VOL. I. — NO. xn. G 



