viii 



PREFACE. 



into the family connections and the history of our new 

 acquaintance, their qualities, their peculiarities, and charac- 

 teristics, — all are interesting to us, and the more so, the 

 more intimately we study all that distinguishes them from 

 the unknown crowd of which they at first constituted a 

 part. 



Apply this to plants, and it will be seen that the same 

 feeling is experienced with regard to our floral acquaintance. 

 Enter an extensive garden stocked with rare plants, or a 

 crowded conservatory full of exotics, and we admire their 

 lovely forms, their brilliant colours, the gracefulness of one, 

 the stately growth of another. "We carry away a general 

 sense of beauty, and even this is a great pleasure ; but these 

 lovely strangers are strangers still, and they soon fade from 

 remembrance. Should however one or two be presented to 

 us, how eagerly do we inquire their names, the country 

 from which they were brought, their qualities, uses, and 

 peculiarities, and then only do they become favourites and 

 almost friends ; for the most minute inquiry and the most 

 patient investigation but bring to light fresh beauties and 



