PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 



IT is not presumptuous, we think, to express our conviction that this Volume 

 will supply a want which has long existed in gardening literature. We so think 

 because all previous Dictionaries concerning plants are rendered more or less 

 deficient for horticultural purposes by being too much occupied with botanical 

 details ; by being too large and expensive for general use ; by being too old to 

 include more than a small number of the plants now cultivated ; or from being 

 the production of one writer, necessarily imperfect in one or more departments 

 in which his knowledge happened to be deficient. It is believed that THE 

 COTTAGE GARDENERS' DICTIONARY is free from all these objections. Its botanical 

 details are no more than sufficient as a guide to fuller knowledge of the plants; 

 it is the cheapest ever issued from the press ; it includes all plants known as 

 desirable for culture at the date of publication ; and every detail of cultivation 

 is either from the pen, or has passed under the supervision, of those well-known 

 for appropriate skilfulness. We need only add, that we have endeavoured 

 clearly to explain all the usual gardening occupations and terms; to give 

 accurate information relative to soil and manures, and to detail minutely the 

 culture of each plant; as well as to admit none but such as are either desirable 

 to have in cultivation, or are in some way interesting. 



It being always satisfactory to know who are our teachers, we think it 

 desirable and just to all parties to state that Mr. BEATON, Gardener to Sir W. 

 Middleton, Bart., has furnished all the headings descriptive of each genus, the 

 derivation of their names, with their botanical classification and nomenclature. 

 To Mr. FISH, Gardener to Colonel Sowerby, we are similarly indebted for the 

 general cultivation of each genus of flowering and ornamental plants ; to Mr. 

 ERRINGTON, Gardener to Sir P. Egerton, Bart., for the fruit culture and selection 

 of varieties ; to Mr. APPLEBY, Floricultural Manager to Messrs. Henderson, for 

 the same information relative to Florists' Flowers; ^whilst on Mr. BARNES, 

 Gardener to Lady Kolle, Mr. WEAVEK, Gardener to the Warden of Winchester 

 College, and the EDITOR, have devolved the tenants of the kitchen garden. The 

 miscellaneous essays have been furnished by various hands, too numerous and 

 too combined to be particularized ; but the Editor does not shrink from being 

 responsible for them. 



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