PREFACE. 



The principal improvement introduced in this Seventh Volume 

 of the Gardener's Magazine is, the collection into one list, in 

 each Number (p. 344'. 503. and 615.), of all the plants men- 

 tioned in that Number as introduced to our gardens, but which are 

 not included, or are mentioned under a different name, or imper- 

 fectly described, in the H6rtus Britdnnicus. This list is prepared 

 and printed with a degree of care and accuracy, and at an 

 expense, which, it is but justice to ourselves to state, has not 

 hitherto been equalled in any botanical publication in this or in 

 any other country. At the end of every year these lists will be 

 rearranged, and published separately on the 1st of the succeed- 

 ing February, as a Supplement to the Hortus Britdyinicus, The 

 Supplement for ISSlwill appear ou February 1. 1832. 



In the course of the publication of this Volume, the Conductor 

 has had an opportunity of personally ascertaining, during an exten- 

 sive tour, the state of gardening, and the wants and wishes of a 

 number of his readers, in the central and northern counties of 

 England, and in the west of Scotland. He has been confirmed in 

 his intention of continuing the reports of the Provincial Horticul- 

 tural Societies, subject to the modifications laid down in p. 626. 

 He has ascertained, beyond all doubt, that gardening has made 

 much more progress during the last quarter of a century as an 

 art of culture than as an art of design and taste ; and that, in 

 consequence, the wants of his readers, whether gardeners, their 

 employers, or amateurs, are chiefly in the department of taste ; 

 in other words, in landscape-gardening and garden architecture. 



While the newest varieties of fruits, culinary vegetables, and. 

 flowers have found their way almost every where, the same com- 

 monplace manner of laying out shrubberies and flower-gardens 

 (see p. 400, 401, and 402.) which existed at the end of the last 

 century is still prevalent. Trees in parks are planted in the same 

 formal belts and clumps, or scattered singly over the surface in 

 what is familiarly called dotting. The same indiscriminate mode 

 of mixing trees in plantations still prevails ; and, in regard to 

 thinning and pruning (which, however, have more to do with 

 profit than with picturesque effect), there is not one proprietor in 

 twenty that has the courage to set about either operation. The 

 order and keeping of gardens and pleasure-grounds seem, on the 

 whole, to have retrograded rather than advanced ; partly because, 

 while the extent of most places has been increased, the number 

 of hands allowed for keeping them has been diminished ; but 

 partly, also, from misapplied exertion and labour on the part of 

 the gardener, and from his, in almost every case, confounding the 

 means of high order and keeping with the end. This we have 



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