§ 2. Census of Cultivated Indigenous Plants. 



A Record of All the Species of Plants Native to 

 North America, North of Mexico, which have been 

 Commercially Intr.oduced to Cultivation. 



The extent to which temperate North America has contribu- 

 ted to the catalogue of cultivated plants has never been made 

 the subject of statistical inquiry. There is a general feeling 

 that, as a people, we have not appreciated our native plants, 

 and it is probably true that they have been much neglected 

 until within very recent years. Many of our familiar garden 

 fruits and flowers are of American origin, but they have 

 seemed few in comparison to the whole number of desirable 

 and tractable native species. The following catalogue, how- 

 ever, shows that the number in cultivation at the present time 

 is very large, and it is probably the best evidence which can 

 be adduced to show that Americans possess a fondness for 

 plants and gardens. 



It is not strange that American plants should have been 

 first cultivated in England or other parts of Europe. Horti- 

 culture, especially the growing of plants for ornament, 

 reaches its highest development only as the face of nature 

 becomes softened by improvements and as institutions be- 

 come staid and self-sustaining. And it has always been true 

 that plants have been first appreciated, as a rule, in countries 

 to w T hich they are strange and unfamiliar, for novelty has 

 been quite as important as merit in favoring their dissemina- 

 tion. The early American botanists, of whom John Bartram 

 was the chief, sent numbers of live plants and seeds to the 

 botanic gardens of Europe, and the labors of these men were 

 supplemented by many European collectors traveling in this 



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