vill Preface. 
work of this description, and equally as a matter of course, 
whilst correcting them, we have committed others. As nothing 
is more difficult than to discover our own mistakes, the com- 
piler would feel obliged to anybody for corrections, and for 
suggestions respecting additional information. The nomen- 
clature of the Coniferee is perhaps the least satisfactory, on 
account of the difficulty experienced in identifying the culti- 
vated forms with their wild parents. So many of them appear, 
even in a natural state, under two or more very different forms ; 
and in the case of dicecious species the determinations fre- 
quently admit of great doubts regarding their accuracy. These 
doubts cannot be cleared up in the absence of cones or adult 
development. But, after all, the correct original name is 
not of so much importance to the cultivator as the value of 
the plant in question for useful or ornamental purposes, 
though it is desirable to know what is meant by a certain 
name, and whether this name be restricted to one form, 
or, as is too often the case, applied to several distinct things. 
It may be objected that there is a want of uniformity in the 
present work, and that too much prominence is accorded to 
some genera, whilst others, whose species are equally difficult 
of discrimination, are treated less in detail. Doubtless this is 
true, and it can only be pleaded in extenuation that the desire 
to keep within the limits of a handy volume was the only 
influence that impelled us to this course. The selection may 
not be in every instance the best, but it is thought that details 
respecting the history of ‘florist’s flowers,’ like the Aster, 
Dahlia, and Rose, and descriptions of all the species in cultiva- 
tion belonging to a genus like Liliwm, will be more acceptable 
than a complete description of the rarer plants in cultivation. 
As a rule, those who make large collections are botanists, 
possessing a more or less extensive botanical library. This 
work being intended for amateurs and gardeners of limited 
scientific attainments, everything has been simplified so far as 
is consistent with perspicuity. In nearly all cases information 
respecting the structure of the ovary, aud the position, number, 
and form of the ovules in different orders has been omitted, 
the mature seed-vessel, or fruit, and its contents alone being 
described. For the use of those unacquainted with Greek and 
