on Gardening and Rural Affairs. 43 S 



of ornamental hardy plants, so remarkably well executed that it may be 



safely recommended as a copy-book for young people learning to draw 



flowers. To botanical amateurs it possesses also considerable interest, 



the plants figured being some of the most ornamental in cultivation. 



Sweet, Robert, F.L.S. Author of Hortus Suburbanus Londinensis, Botanical 



Cultivator, Geraniacese, Cistineae, The British Flower Garden, British 



Warblers, &c. Sweet's Hortus Britannicus : or, a Catalogue of Plants 



cultivated in the Gardens of Great Britain, arranged in natural Orders : 



with the Addition of the Linnean Classes and Orders to which they 



belong, References to the Books where they are described, their native 



Places of Growth, when introduced, Time of Flowering, Duration, and 



Reference to Figures ; with numerous Synonyms. Part I. London, 



royal 8vo. ~lOs. 6d. 



This catalogue of our friend Mr. Sweet having the same title as our 

 own, the reader may very naturally doubt our impartiality in speaking of it. 

 But though the titles of the two works are nearly the same, the books 

 differ so materially in plan, that the one is quite a different sort of thing 

 from the other. We can, therefore, afford to render due praise to Mr. Sweet 

 for having been the first to produce a British catalogue arranged in natural 

 orders We only regret that he has adopted a title to which we claim a 

 prior right, having announced our Hortus Britannicus in the Encyclo- 

 paedia of Gardening (§ 7506. and other places,) in April 1824, and in 

 various subsequent advertisements, long before Mr. Sweet announced any 

 such work. This statement is due both to ourselves and the proprietors 

 of our production. 



Mr. Sweet's catalogue differs from ours in having the species arranged 

 in natural orders; we have arranged the species according to the Linnean 

 system, as in our opinion that system is better adapted for a beginner, and 

 for the present state of botany in this country ; but to provide for the 

 more mature botanist, for those who differ from us in opinion, and for 

 what may ultimately become the general classification in our gardens, we 

 have given a natural arrangement of all the genera without repeating the 

 species; and as the genera are numbered in both classifications, a reference 

 from the one to the other is easily made. Our work, therefore, contains 

 two distinct classifications, and therefore possesses all the advantages which 

 belong to each. The number of what are called perfect plants in our cata- 

 logue and in that of Mr. Sweet will probably be nearly the same, though 

 on this subject we shall be more able to speak when Part II. of Mr. Sweet's 

 work appears. But in order that Mr. Sweet may speak for himself, we quote 

 the whole of his preface. 



" The adoption of the arrangement of plants, according to the natural 

 method, is continually increasing ; and under the very prevalent impres- 

 sion that it will, ere long, be brought into general use, the author has 

 been induced to compile the present work according to the natural system ; 

 at the same time, there is prefixed, to each genus, the Linnean class and 

 order to which it belongs; and it will be seen that, not unfrequently, 



Slants of one genus will belong to several of the Linnean classes and orders, 

 latural orders are also of more real use to the cultivator, as it brings toge- 

 ther the groups of plants that are nearest related, and which very generally 

 require nearly the same sort of management ; and plants that are difficult 

 to propagate may very frequently be readily increased, by grafting or inarch- 

 ing on some other belonging to the same natural order, but will seldom or 

 ever do any good on plants that are not so related. 



" Besides the adopted names of the plants, and references to the books 

 where they are figured or described, numerous of the most essential syno- 



G G 4 



