PREFACE 



This book is written in order to call attention to the 

 principal winter-flowering plants, and also those plants 

 valuable in the open, for their fruit, foliage, or stem 

 effect. After the fall of the autumn leaf, and the 

 waning of the feted chrysanthemums under glass, many- 

 gardens are ill furnished with attractions. This should 

 not be, seeing that good material is obtainable, which, 

 if treated aright, will prove most satisfactory. 



Since the reconstruction of the plant houses of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, under the direction 

 of Professor Isaac Bayley Balfour, the cultivation of 

 various winter flowering plants has been made a pro- 

 minent feature, the extent of such *^ under glass" 

 cultures being curtailed only by the available space, 

 limited, owing to the housing of a large representative 

 collection of plants. 



It is unnecessary to include matter relating to the 

 winter supply of vegetables and fruits, for these are 

 dealt with in several of the Handbooks of this series. 



D. S. F. 



Edinburgh. 



Vll 



