iv PREFACE. 
calculated to improve and ornament the Orchard, the Garden, and 
the Green-house. , 
The immense losses which have frequently occurred by plants 
decaying and dying on the voyage of importation, have caused the 
disbursements in this way to be very great; the same plant has, in 
some instances, been imported the twentieth time before it surviv- 
ed, and thousands of dollars have been expended in importations 
and experiments, from which no pecuniary benefits have been 
derived. It has also been necessary to import a very extensive 
variety, in order to make the proper selection of those kinds which 
were most congenial to our climate; and the present collection of 
fruits is the result of much investigation, and is selected from a 
very large number, a portion of which had to be rejected on ac- 
count of their indifference in quality, the small quantity they yield- 
ed, or their unsuitableness to our climate. It is, therefore, not 
without great exertions, attended with an immense expense, that 
the collection has been increased to about 6,000 species and varie- 
ties; many of which, from being objects of curiosity alone, or held 
in esteem only as they regard science, yield no remuneration. 
As medical practice is so nearly connected with the science of 
Botany, it is the desire of the proprietor to add to the establish- 
ment all exotics which have been celebrated for their medicinal 
properties; and arrangements have been made, which will greatly 
extend that part of the collection, and by farthe greater number of 
those which are natives of our own country, and whose medicinal 
virtues have been established by the investigations of Drs. Bigelow 
and Barton, and which haye been figured in their respective publi- 
cations, will alreafly be found in the collection. It has also been an 
object of particular consideration, to extend as much as possible 
the number of the Indigenous Vegetable Productions of our own 
country generally; but, in a country so extensive as our’s, and 
where so few gentlemen of Botanic Science are found in its remoter 
regions, these exertions, although crowned with much success, 
have also been necessarily attended with very great, and, in some 
cases, almost discouraging difficulties. Thomas Nuttall, Esq. a 
eentleman 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-four 
species, on the Rocky Mountains, 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. se 
As acquisitions to the collection are making so frequently, and 
through such a variety of sources, it follows of course, that many 
fruits and plants will be some time in possession of the establish- 
ment previous to their being announced in a new edition of the 
Catalogue—it is not, therefore, always necessary to omit ordering 
a tree or plant on account of its not being enumerated therein. 
