PREFACE. vii 



time to the Gardeners Chronicle, I have condensed 

 into a supplementary chapter. 



If, as I have heard from a friendly critic, there 

 is too much couleur de rose in my descriptions, I 

 am tempted to retort that this is a colour not 

 perhaps altogether inappropriate to my subject ; 

 but, be this as it may, I have described nothing 

 but as it really appeared to me, and I have only 

 wished that others should receive the same im- 

 pressions as myself. 



For my very open egotism I make no apology ; 

 it was a necessity of the plan on which I wrote. 



I have added notes on the Roman Viola, and 

 on the Sunflower of the Classics, and have given 

 some extracts respecting the Solanum and the 

 fly-catching Azalea. I have also reprinted, by 

 the editor's kind permission, part of an article of 

 mine that appeared in the Athenceum on " Flowers 

 and the Poets." 



