xii PROSPECT 



is properly coordinated or balanced; for a scheme is of no value unless the coordinate 

 parts are contrasts of similar characters. Yet the failure to coordinate the keys was 

 common, particularly iu the earlier part of the work. For example, there is uo service 

 in the key that runs 



A. Lvs. long-lanceolate, entire 

 AA. Pis. blue, in long racemes 



and yet it has been constantly necessary to eliminate examples of this type. The third 

 effort in the editing of manuscripts is the revision of nomenclature, for uniformity in 

 this matter is of the utmost editorial importance. The fourth effort is to look up and 

 insert all references to portraits of the plants. Beyond these efforts, the editing of the 

 manuscripts had to do chiefly with matters of literary form. 



To the looker-on, the actual writing of the articles may appear to be the larger 

 part of the work. As a matter of fact, however, it has required more labor to secure 

 articles from correspondents than it would have required to have written them ourselves. 

 This is not because correspondents have been negligent, but because of the inherent 

 difficulties of doing work at long range. The value of the material, however, is vastly 

 improved and broadened because of the number of persons who have been engaged 

 in preparing it. It is probable that two -thirds of the labor in preparing the Cyclo- 

 pedia has been of a character that is not directly productive of written articles, — as 

 correspondence, keeping of accounts, filing of material, securing illustrations, proof- 

 reading. 



PROSPECT 



The Editor hopes that this Cyclopedia will never be revised. If new issues are 

 called for, mere errors should be corrected; but beyond this, the plates should be left 

 as they are, for it is the purpose of the book to make a record of North American horti- 

 culture as it exists at the opening of the twentieth century. It is hoped that subsequent 

 progress may be recorded in annual supplemental volumes. It is planned to issue each 

 j-ear a supplement of say 75 to 100 pages, in the same size of page as the present book, 

 with cumulative index, in paper covers; every iive years these supplements may be com- 

 pleted into a volume. They should record the introductions of new plants and methods, 

 contain revisions of important genera, encourage historical studies, and make reviews of 

 the tendencies of plant culture iu North America. The manuscript for the first two 

 proposed supplements is already prepared. The first is a complete key to all the fami- 

 lies and genera in the Cyclopedia, designed to enable the student to run down any 

 species that he may have in hand. It was hoped that this key could be printed as a 

 supplement to Volume IV, but the size of the volume forbids it. The second manu- 

 script is a bibliography of the North American book writings on horticulture. These 

 supplements ai-e not definitely pi-omised, but they will be made if there is sufficient 

 demand for them. 



It may not be out of place for the Editor to indicate what he conceives to be the 

 most important features of the general plan of the Cyclopedia. 



(1) The book represents a living horticulture. It has attempted to account for the 

 species that are actually iu cultivation iu the country, rather than those that chance to 

 have been described or pictured in other cyclopedias or in periodical publications. The 

 best way of determining what plants are actually iu cultivation is to make a list of 



