IX. 



THE NEGLECTED AMERICAN PLANTS. 



May, 1861. 



IT is an old and familiar saying that a prophet is not without 

 honor, except in his own country, and as we were making our 

 way this spring through a dense forest in the State of New Jersey, 

 we were tempted to apply this saying to things as well as people. 

 How many grand and stately trees there are in our woodlands, that 

 are never heeded by the arboriculturist in planting his lawns and 

 pleasure-grounds ; how many rich and beautiful shrubs, that might 

 embellish our walks and add variety to our shrubberies, that are 

 left to wave on the mountain crag, or overhang the steep side of 

 some forest valley ; how many rare and curious flowers that bloom 

 unseen amid the depths of silent woods, or along the margin of 

 wild water-courses. Yes, our hotrhouses are full of the heaths of 

 New Holland and -the Cape, our parterres are gay with the ver- 

 benas and fuchsias of South America, our pleasure-grounds are 

 studded with the -trees of Europe and Northern Asia, while the 

 rarest spectacle in an American country place, is to see above three 

 or four native trees, rarer still to find any but foreign shrubs, and 

 rarest of all, to find any of our native wild flowers. 



Nothing strikes foreign horticulturists and amateurs so much, 

 as this apathy and indifference of Americans, to the beautiful sylvan 

 and floral products of their own country. An enthusiastic collector 

 in Belgium first made us keenly sensible of this condition of our 

 countrymen, but Summer, in describing the difficulty he had in 

 procuring from any of his correspondents, here, American seeds or 



