PREFACE. 



As I reside in town, and am known among my friends as 

 a lover of the country, it has often happened that one or 

 other of them would bring me consolation in the shape of 

 a Myrtle, a Geranium, an Hydrangea, or a Rose-tree, &c. 

 Liking plants, and loving my friends, I have earnestly de- 

 sired to preserve these kind gifts ; but, utterly ignorant of 

 their wants and habits, I have seen my plants die one after 

 the other, rather from attention ill-directed than from the 

 want of it. I have many times seen others in the same 

 situation as myself, and found it a common thing, upon the 

 arrival of a new plant, to hear its owner say, " Now, I 

 should like to know how I am to treat this ? Should it 

 stand within doors, or without ? should it have much water, 

 or little ? should it stand in the sun, or in the shade ?" 



Even Myrtles and Geraniums, commonly as they are 

 seen in flower-stands, balconies, &c., often meet with an 

 untimely death from the ignorance of their nurses. Many 

 a plant have I destroyed, like a fond and mistaken mother, 

 by an inexperienced tenderness ; until, in pity to these vege- 

 table nurslings and their nurses, I resolved to obtain and 

 to communicate such information as should be requisite 

 for the rearing and preserving a portable garden in pots. 

 This little volume is the result ; the information contained 

 in it has been carefully collected from the best authorities ; 

 and henceforward the death of any plant, owing to the 



