INTRODUCTION. 



The love of flowers is often gained from some grand floral 

 display that accident has brought under our notice, such as 

 the London and provincial Horticultural Exhibitions; yet the 

 desire to grow similar plants ourselves is but rarely felt under 

 these circumstances, and this results from a conviction that we 

 cannot equal those specimens of horticultural skill that we 

 observe have merited a prize. The desire to cultivate plants, 

 however, is engrafted into us more from seeing plants growing 

 in their native wildness, and as gathered together in the 

 collections of our principal Nurserymen: indeed both these 

 sources help our inclinations forward until we become en- 

 thusiastic lovers of Botany. My first love of Ferns was 

 gained by a visit to the Fernery of ^lessrs. Backhouse, of 

 York. In those days British Ferns were more popular tlian 

 the exotic species: subsequent visits, however, to Messrs. 

 Veitch and RoUisson, convinced me that foreign Ferns were 

 floral gems, and created a desire to know more about them. 



Stove and greenhouse flowers can only be cultivated in 

 hothouses; it is therefore the cultivation of hardy plants that 

 must claim the attention of the million. Who could visit the 

 pansy-beds of Mr. Dean, of Bradford, or of Messrs. Downie, 

 Laird, and Laing, for instance, without wishing to grow these 

 plants at home. In alluding to the flowers of our gardens, 

 now becoming so deservedly cultivated, the want of a popular 

 illustrated work on the subject is to be regretted; a desideratum 



B 



