PREFACE. 
Tuis establishment being but eight miles from the city of New-York, with a steamboat 
and stages making several trips daily between the two places, offers every advantage 
that would be possessed by a city location; and an office and agency is also established in 
the city to expedite its business. = 
The Proprietors, in tendering to the public this new Descriptive Catalogue (33d edi- 
tion) with reduced prices, desire to state that they have an immense stock of Fruit and 
Ornamental Trees, &c., of large size, and all of healthy and vigorous growth. They 
also have trees of all the smaller sizes suitable for young Nurseries and ne distant trans- 
mission where transportation is expensive. The establishment contains at the present 
period more than a million of Trees and Plants, and the Proprietors are willing Fol 
enter into liberal arrangements as to prices with all such persons as desire large quanti-| 
ties of trees, &c., and to those proprietors of Nurseries who wish to extend their col- 
lections, and such other persons as may wish to establish new Nurseries, they will make 
liberal discounts from the usual rates. Any persons who are desirous to actas Agents in| 
towns where no agency at present exists, will please communicate their views in rezard| 
thereto. a. 
Those who were in correspondence with the Establishment, from 1820 to 1836, willl 
{have perceived by their written communications therewith during the last two years, that 
\the active correspondent of that era has again taken the helm and returned to his first 
jlove—the Vegetable Kiugdom—and they will also perceive that in resuming his position, 
he is animated with the same spirit and zea! in this pleasurable pursuit, which he formerly, 
manifested. The decease of his estimable parent, the late Wm. Prince, rendered this! 
course indispensable, at the same time that feelings of duty, inclination and interest tended | 
to the same result. During the last years of the life of the late Proprietor, he, from ad-} 
vanced age, found it indispensable to confide very much to the superintendents he em-: 
ployed, but under the present Proprietors nothing is done except with their personal super-| 
vision, and all correspondents may rely on the utmost precision, exactitude, and liberality) 
in the fulfilment of their commands. 
In the arrangement of the present Catalogue we have made free use of the knowledge} 
and information we possess as to the qualities of the respective fruits, and we have in-! 
stituted such a discrimination as cannot fail to be of immense importance to all cultiva-: 
tors who are solicitous of making judicious selections, 
The fruit trees In the Catalogue are either grafted or inoculated, and are propagated from: 
such European and American kinds as have acquired a well merited celebrity, the whole| 
collection of which has recently undergone a most careful revision, and the selections have! 
been made with great care and attention. Every precaution is taken which is necessary| 
to preserve the different varieties perfectly distinct, and ali the Peach and other trees are’ 
perfectly healthy, and free from disease. Many persons are apt to. purchase trees with-| 
out regard to any point but their cheapness, and not unfrequently, after the toil and ex-} 
pense of years, find them, when they arrive at bearing, absolutely worthless. Others’ 
who regard the price only, pay no attention to the size and vigor of the trees, and con-' 
jsequently sacrifice many years uselessly before their orchards come into bearing, The} 
strongest proofs the Proprietors can give the public of their anxiety to guard against! 
misconception, are the precise descriptions contained in the Treatises recently published) 
jand in the present Descriptive Catalogue, by the means of which every person, however 
ignorant on the subject, can ascertain if he has been deceived. 74 
| In regard to the identity of the various kinds of fruit, the Proprietors do not pretend, 
to a perfect infallibility, but they do constantly aim at that point, and therefore if an in-! 
advertent error occasionally arise, it is because their unwearied scrutiny has not been! 
able to guard against it. One great advantage possessed by the trees sent from this esta- 
blishment, is their particular hardihood. From the proximity of the nurseries to the ocean 
on one side, and to the East River on the other, with a free and open exposure to all winds, | 
accompanied by the particular advantage of being so far north as to acclimatize the trees’ 
to any still more northern section of our country, they acquire a degree of hardihood which! 
renders them extremely eligible for colder latitudes, and to support the rigor of less favored: 
regions, and trees thus hardened by nature are also found to succeed best in our Southern 
se It is doubtless to these causes that is to be attributed the general success which 
has attended the trees sent from this establishment, even when transmitted to Nova Scotia,! 
