INTRODUCTION 



To MY READERS, 



In the course of this my first serious attempt 

 at book- writing, I propose placing before you, in 

 the most interesting way that my literary attain- 

 ments permit, a concise and careful resume of a life- 

 long study of flower growing and arrangement. 



I am scarcely writing it for those who are already 

 far advanced in the art or for those who have the oppor- 

 tunity and leisure of regularly attending the Royal 

 Horticultural Society's Meetings and other large Ex- 

 hibitions, but rather for that section of the flower- 

 loving community who have to rely upon what they 

 are told or upon the information which they may 

 gather from the voluminous, if not always too lumi- 

 nous, catalogues circulated throughout the country. 



I have been asked many times to write articles 

 on gardening matters hi the daily and weekly 

 papers, and have also been repeatedly pressed to 

 contribute to the gardening periodicals, but I have 

 rarely ventured into print, and I may therefore 

 claim that in this single volume I am telling my 

 readers, for what it is worth, what I know ; taking 



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