Net 
Hf — 5 
y HE love of flowers having become so nearly 
universal, it seems almost superfluous for an 
author to attempt any explanation in placing 
a work at all pertaining to the subject before 
the public, as every work, either elaborate or 
simple, must awaken a response in some heart 
where nature has placed her shrine. To those 
endowed with keen perceptions, the magnifi- 
cent, intricate: and wonderful handiwork of the All-wise is daily mani- 
fested, and always new, in the infinite variety of the floral world. 
A number of years ago, the writer, being interested in the mytho- 
logical legends of the Greeks and Romans, was frequently struck with 
the number of fabled gods and goddesses, and the various rural nymphs 
who attended them, that were transformed into a tree, shrub or flower, 
either to mitigate some sorrow, gratify revenge, or as a punishment for 
some breach of the laws supposed to govern the deities of that time. 
Having made numerous memoranda of such legends, the love of 
flowers was sufficient to interest one in the general history of plants, 
their nativity, uses, the chief events in the history of each species, its 
cultivation and introduction into America. The “FLORAL KINGDOM” : 
iii 
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