INTRODUCTION. T 



it will be found invaluable. Although the publications in 

 Europe on Gardening and Floriculture are profuse, yet many 

 of their directions, when practised in the United States, prove 

 almost a dead letter. Not so with their architectural and 

 horticultural designs. The estates of the wealthy are suscepti- 

 ble of great improvement ; they want more of the picturesque, 

 and (to use the words of the veteran pioneer of horticulture) 

 gardenesque effect, to relieve their premises from the mono- 

 tonous erections and improvements which seem to govern all. 

 On culture, a work adapted to the climate must (and no other 

 can) be the guide in this country : on this account, a work 

 like the present has been a desideratum to aid those who 

 desire to employ their leasure hours either for amusement, 

 the benefit of health, to sweeten the decline of life, or to gain 

 a more intimate knowledge of the various productions of 

 nature throughout the world. Every year brings from other 

 climes some remarkable flower, fruit, or plant; and as a point 

 that we are at least in some of our undertakings second to 

 none, we have only to refer to the very successful culture and 

 flowering of the VICTORIA REGIA Water Lily, at Spring 

 Brook, the country seat of Caleb Cope, Esq., where it haa 

 bloomed with more regal grandeur than at any of the Abbeys, 

 Castles, or Palaces of the Eastern world. 



ROBERT BUIST. 



ROSEDALE NURSERIES, 



Near Philadelphia, 1854. 



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