PREFACE. 



T N publishing these CONTRIBUTIONS TO HORTICUL- 

 A TURAL LITERATURE it seems hardly desirable 

 that everything I have written over the last fifty years 

 should be included. I began writing at a very early 

 age in response to an invitation from the late Mr J. 

 C. Loudon, during his brief Directorship of " The 

 Gardeners' Gazette." Copies of the articles written in 

 early life were rarely kept, and it would be too much 

 to expect that the memory should recall trifles often 

 written on the spur of the moment and as quickly 

 forgotten. Moreover, some contributions were of a 

 merely transitory interest. 



Of the articles selected, some contain lists of varieties 

 of cultivated plants and flowers which were the best of 

 that date, but which are now superseded by fashion 

 or by the improvement of races by cultivation and 

 selection. It was not, however, thought advisable in all 

 cases to omit these lists, although the individuals have 



