RETROSPECT vii 



has been impossible to reach the ideals. There are limitations of expense and time as 

 well as of capability : for it is yet a question whether our new country is ready for such 

 a laborious work. 



In America there has been but one cyclopedic work on horticulture, Henderson's 

 "Handbook of Plants," 1881; second edition, 1890. This is in one volume. The most 

 complete similar recent work in the English language is Nicholson's "Illustrated Dic- 

 tionary of Gardening," four volumes, 1884-87. It is the work of the talented ex-Curator 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England. Mottet's French edition of Nicholson, 

 five volumes, 1892-99, is the largest modern cyclopedia of horticulture, and the only one 

 which excels in size the present American venture. Another popular English work in 

 one volume is Wright & Dewar's revision of "Johnson's Gardener's Dictionary," 1894. 

 Another recent French work, also in one volume, is Bois' "Dictionnaire d' Horticulture," 

 1893-99, with colored pictures printed in the text. In German is Riimpler's "Illus- 

 triertes Gartenbau-Lexikon," in one volume, with a recent new edition; also Siebert & 

 Voss' "Vilmorin's Blumeugiirtuere," one volume of text and one of plates, 1896, the 

 most critical of all similar works. In judging the American work, the reader must 

 bear in mind that there is really no critical horticultural-botanical writing in this coun- 

 try back of the present decade. The present Cyclopedia reflects the imperfection of our 

 literature as well as the shortcomings of the Editor. 



//. THE OFFICE DETAILS 



Before the actual writing was begun, other cyclopedias were searched for sugges- 

 tions of subjects to be inserted. Also, a card index was made to portraits of plants in 

 the leading horticultural and botanical serials, to descriptions of plants in current publi- 

 cations, to monographs, and to the names of leading horticultural varieties in some of 

 the larger groups. This card index grew during the progress of the work, and it now 

 comprises about 35,000 cards. 



The "trade lists" were also made. These lists were intended to afford a record of 

 the plants actually in cultivation in North America north of Mexico. Catalogues of 

 more than one hundred leading seedsmen, florists, and nurserymen were cut up, and all 

 the information respecting the various genera pasted on yellow sheets of standard letter- 

 paper size. Thus, on one sheet, or one set of sheets, would be all the entries on Abies, 

 Bocconia, Saxifraga, and the like. On these "trade lists" were made notes respecting 

 persons who are skilled in the culture of the particular plants, together with extracts 

 from letters, items of experience, and other incidental information. The name of the 

 catalogue from which the cuttings wei'e made was preserved, in order that doubtful 

 questions might be traced. In special groups, it has been impossible to determine 

 just what species are in cultivation because they are not all recorded in printed cata- 

 logues and they are known chiefly to a few fanciers or collectors. This limitation is 

 particularly apparent in orchids; also in such large special genera as Acacia and Eu- 

 calyptus. In such cases it is practically impossible to make complete lists, and it is 

 probably scarcely worth while to make the effort; but all the species that are generally 

 known are almost sure to have been recorded. Since the Cyclopedia is designed as a 

 permanent work of reference, mere horticultm^al varieties have been omitted, as a rule; 

 but an effort has been made to indicate the dominant types or races, the evolution 

 of garden favorites, the good and bad "points" of important variations, and to sug- 

 gest possible lines of progress. 



