PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



This volume owes its existence principally to tlie repeated 

 requests of a number of our fair patrons and amateur sup- 

 porters, whose inquiries and wishes for a practical manual 

 on Floriculture at last induced us to prepare a work on the 

 subject. That now offered is given unaffectedly and simply 

 as a plain and easy treatise on this increasingly interesting 

 subject. It will at once be perceived that there are no pre- 

 tensions to literary claims — the directions are given in the 

 simplest manner — the arrangement made as lucidly as was 

 in our power — and the whole is presented with the single 

 wish of its being practically useful. How far our object has 

 been attained^ of course our readers must judge. Nothing 

 has been intentionally concealed ; and all that is asserted is 

 the result of minute observation, close application, and an 

 extended continuous experience from childhood. We pre- 

 tend not to infallibility, and are not so sanguine as to declare 

 our views the most perfect that can be attained. But we 

 can so far say that the practice here recommended has been 

 found very successful. 



Some, very probably, may be disappointed in not having 

 the means of propagating as clearly delineated as those of 

 culture; but to have entered into all the minutiae connected 



