2 Introduction. 



To those who choose a city home, we would also teach the art of 

 home-adornment ; would show how the vine may for them yield its 

 luscious clusters, how the little front-patch under the windows may be 

 a constant well-spring of floral beauty, the drawing-room window be 

 gay with flowers, the ivy twine around the rooms, and the delicate tracer)' 

 of ferns and mosses look out upon them through the windows of 

 Wardian cases. To the gardener, whose aim is to produce the most 

 flowers in the least space, and to whom every new plant of free-flowering 

 habit is a treasure, we hope to introduce new and valuable plants. 



And we trust that in our pages the amateur may find cultural rules, 

 and records of experience, for which he might look elsewhere in vain. 



Horticulture, as treated by us, will be divided into the three great 

 branches of culture, — flowers, fruit, and vegetables. 



The wider field of agriculture we leave for the present, and confine 

 ourselves to the garden ; although, occasionally, w^e may find space to 

 treat upon grasses and forage-crops, and the field-culture of vegetables 

 and cereals. 



And, first, floriculture. In this department, the garden, the green-house, 

 the forcing and cold house, the orchid-house and stove, will each receive 

 due attention. To us, the garden of a few square feet will not be 

 neglected as insignificant : many of our finest plants have come from 

 little garden-plots, where the zeal of some ardent floriculturist met its due 

 reward. 



Each season, all that is new will be presented ; nor will old favorites 

 be neglected. Cultural treatises on every plant of interest to the florist, 

 with copious illustrations, will form a prominent feature of the maga- 

 zine. 



Window-gardening, the growth of house-plants, will be treated in popular 

 language ; and the wild-flowers of our woods and fields, often fairer 

 than their garden rivals, and too much neglected, will receive well-merited 

 notice. 



Pomology in its many branches will especially engage our attention. 

 Through the garden, the orchard, the forcing-house, the cold and hot 

 grapery, and the orchard-house, we shall walk with our readers month by 

 month, and note the needs, explain the difficulties, of culture, the applica- 



