ms : PREFACE. | ¥ 
almost discouraging difficulties. Thomas Nuttall, Esq. a gen- 
tleman celebrated as much for the liberality of his mind as for 
his great attainments in Botany, and other sciences, presented 
me with seeds of all the species collected during his western 
tour—a very considerable number of which have flowered, 
and are now in a thriving state. During the recent Yellow 
Stone expedition, under Col. Long, Dr. James also made a 
collection of seeds of eighty-fout species on the Rocky Moun- | 
tains, and elsewhere, which he very politely presented to this 
establishment, and among which it is expected will be found 
not only a large number of new species, but also some new 
genera. | 
At the period at which this garden was commenced, few of 
the finer fruits of Eurepe had yet found their way to America, 
and no person had yet paid any attention to the amelioration 
or improvement 0; such as our own country afforded; but, at 
the present time, we have not only by far the greater part of 
the most celebrated fruits of Europe and Asia, but can also 
boast the origin of many which rival those of the old werld, 
and which are sought after with avidity by the inhabitants of 
the eastern hemisphere, and are considered by them as valuable | 
acyuisitions to their already great collections ; and, that our 
coun *y is every way equal to others in the improvement and 
- perpetuity ef fruits, is a truth no longer doubted. — 
‘ It has been thought adviseable to add to the Catalogue a 
short but general ‘Treatise on cultivation, as it will be of ser- 
vice to those who do not already possess general information on 
the subject, or who have not within their reach the benefit of 
more copious publications. The culture of Bulbous Flowers, 
which have heretofore received but little attention in this coun- 
try, has also been dwelt upon, from a positive conviction, that 
no climate is more congenial to the developement of their tran- 
scendent beauties than the middle states of the Union, which 
possess all the advantages of Holland, with none of the disad- 
vantages which they so much deprecate as appertaining to their 
climate. In the nomenclature of the trees and plants, I have 
taken for a guide the generally approved names of Linnzus, 
and, for those of more recent discovery, I have been guided by 
Wildenow, Michaux, Pursh, and some other authors of acknow- 
ledged celebrity; and, for ‘the sratification of scientific horti- 
culturists, I have annexed the French names to such fruits as 
were originally imported from France. 
The extent of the garden is at present about twenty acres, 
the whole of which is exclusively devoted to the cultivation of 
; a2 
