4 hitroditdion. 



It has been the desire to place in each volume the result of 

 some unique investigation which should represent the status 

 of a particular branch of American horticulture. In the vol- 

 ume for 1889, the Catalogue of American Kitchen Garden 

 ^'egetables occupied this place, and constituted the kernel of 

 the book. It was expected that the present volume should 

 contain a complete annotated census of all native North Amer- 

 ican plants and their horticultural varieties, which have been 

 introduced into cultivation, and reference is made to it upon 

 page 35. But it is so difficult to collect data upon which to 

 elaborate such a census, and the botany of our cultivated 

 plants is so little understood, that it was thought best to post- 

 pone the list ; and the size to which the volume has grown has 

 also justified the omission. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



Garden Home, Ithaca, N. Y. 



