xxxii PREFACE. 



in which this truly scientific method is applied to all the 

 plants growing wild in the British Islands is Gray's Na- 

 tural Arrangement ; which also contains an Introduction 

 to Botany in general, on a more extensive scale than 

 Withering's, as it includes the explanation of all the new 

 terms which have been lately introduced into botany by the 

 cultivators of the natural system. 



Although it is true that near London plants in general 

 will not thrive so well as in a purer air, and that people in 

 the country have usually some portion of ground to make a 

 garden of, yet such persons as are condemned to a town 

 life will do well to obtain whatever substitute for a garden 

 may be in their power ; for there is confessedly no greater 

 folly than that of refusing all pleasure, because we cannot 

 have all we desire. In Venice, where the nature of the 

 place is such as to afford no garden ground, it is common 

 to see the windows filled with pots, and they have a market 

 for the sale of them. Those who can afford it, indeed, 

 have gardens elsewhere ; but by far the greater number 

 are obliged to content themselves with a portable garden. 

 A lover of flowers, who cannot have a garden or a green- 

 house, will gladly cherish any thing that has the aspect of 

 a green leaf : 



" These serve him with a hint 



That Nature lives : that sight-refreshing green 



Is still the livery she delights to wear, 



Though sickly samples of th' exuberant whole. 



What are the casements lined with creeping herbs, 



The prouder sashes fronted with a range 



Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed, 



The Frenchman's darling * ? Are they not all proofs, 



That man immured in cities, still retains 



His inborn, inextinguishable thirst 



* Mignonette. 



