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HE love of flowers having become so nearly 



universal, it seems almost superfluous for an 

 author to attempt any explanation in placing 

 a work at all pertaining to the subject before 

 the publfc, as every work, either elaborate or 

 iple, must awaken a response in some heart 

 where nature has placed her shrine. To those 

 endowed with keen perceptions, the magnifi- 

 cent, intricate and wonderful handiwork of the All-wise is daily mani- 

 fested, and always new, in the infinite variet}- of the floral world. 



A number of years ago, the writer, being interested in the mytho- 

 logical legends of the Greeks and Romans, was frequently struck with 

 the number of fabled gods and goddesses, and the various rural nymphs 

 who attended them, that were transformed into a tree, shrub or flower, 

 either to mitigate some sorrow, gratify revenge, or as a punishment for 

 some breach of the laws supposed to govern the deities of that time. 



Having made numerous memoranda of such legends, the love of 

 flowers was sufficient to interest one in the general history of plants, 

 their nativity, uses, the chief events in the history of each species, its 

 cultivation and introduction into America. The " Floral Kingdom " 



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