STOVE PLANTS. 



with an endless variety of gorgeous flowers, while, in 

 addition, their branches are beautifully festooned with largo 

 climbing plants, such as are familiar to cultivators in the 

 species of Comhretmn, Passiflora, Cissus, Ipomcca, Boiigain- 

 villea, Bignonia, and many others, which oftentimes reach 

 from the ground to the very tops of their supporters, and 

 hang across their branches like ropes to neighbouring 

 trees, until the whole forms a tangled mass of splendid 

 flowers and foliage utterly beyond the conception of those 

 who have never seen a tropical forest. To collect and 

 send home the riches of these tropical regions is a work 

 of much cost, and is attended with great dijEculties and 

 danger, in the prosecution of which many highly intelli- 

 gent and talented travellers have fallen victims either to 

 the pestilential climate, the wild beasts of the country, or 

 the treachery of, in many instances, the equally wild 

 aborigines. To these men, who, by their arduous and 

 self-sacrificing labours, have so largely increased our know- 

 ledge of the vegetable kingdom, all honour is due, and 

 we cannot pass them in this place without recording our 

 best thanks and highest praises for their services, and at 

 the same time expressing our deep regret for their loss. 

 To our leading nurserymen and amateur horticulturists 

 again, both at home and on the continent, who have 

 contributed funds so profusely to facilitate the introduction 

 of nature's choicest gems to our gardens, the thanks of all 

 plant lovers are due ; these, we trust, will continue their 

 good work. The editors of our numerous botanical and 

 horticultural books and periodicals, moreover, deserve much 

 praise for the spirited manner in which they lay these 

 -treasures before the public, both by means of beautifully 

 executed drawings, and interesting and instructive essays. 

 By this agency an interchange of thought and of practical 



