VI PEACTIUAL FLORICULTURE. 



The radical views advanced on some subjects will be 

 scouted by many gardeners who have been trained, as I 

 was, in the conservative schools. For some years I 

 practised according to my early teachings, until in- 

 creasing business and the dire necessity of more labor 

 brought common sense to the rescue and enabled me to 

 cut loose from prescribed rules to such an extent as now 

 to produce better results, with half the labor, than was 

 done a score of years ago. Had our practices in such 

 matters been limited in their extent, or in the length of 

 time they have been in use, we could not have advocated 

 their adoption with such confidence. Such modes, differ- 

 ing from those of the " orthodox school," as we have 

 described, have been in use by all successful florists of 

 extensive practice in the vicinity of New York for the 

 past twelve or fifteen years, and as " a tree is known by 

 its fruits," so we say come and see the results produced 

 by these methods, and judge whether or not they are 

 worthy of imitation. 



My own knowledge and experience being defective on 

 a few of the subjects treated of in this work, I have; had 

 the pleasure to receive the assistance of friends who have 

 attained special eminence in the departments on which 

 they treat. The plans for laying out gardens, together 

 with the descriptions, are by the late Eugene A. Baumann, 

 Landscape Gardener, of Rah way, N. J. ; that on the " Con- 

 struction of Bouquets, etc.," is written by James H. Park, 

 of Brooklyn, L. I. ; the chapter on " Orchids," is by 

 James Fleming, Bergen City, N. J.; and that on " Violet 

 Forcing," by Norton Bros., of Dorchester, Mass. 



PETER HENDEBSON. 

 Bergen. City, Ni J., Nov. 1st., 1868. 



