PREFACE. 



returned home in the last year, but finding the objects of his 

 research still unexhausted, he has been induced to remain 

 another season ; his expedition being therefore still in pro- 

 gress, it will be sufficient for the present, to state that it 

 has hitherto succeeded beyond the most sanguine expecta- 

 tions of his employers. A number of new plants, of the 

 utmost interest to science, and of importance to ornamental 

 gardening, has been discovered, and the seeds of them trans- 

 mitted to Europe. It is hoped that, from this expedition, our 

 gardens will become as well filled with the beautiful vegeta- 

 tion of the borders of the Columbia, and of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, as it is already with that of the Ohio and Mississippi. 



It may be proper to add, that no further expedition is at 

 present contemplated by the Society, its extensive correspon- 

 dence with every accessible country now rendering such a 

 means of procuring Horticultural novelties less important than 

 it has been heretofore. 



The Society continues to receive assurances of the utility 

 of its exportations of fruit-trees and vegetable seeds to foreign 

 countries, and acknowledgments of the benefits which have 

 been so conferred upon various distant parts of the world. 



The Library has been increased both by purchases and by 

 donations from many members of the Society, and from stran- 

 gers, and it is hoped that the importance to Horticulture of 

 this part of the Establishment, will be steadily kept in view 

 by friends of the Society. There is at present no other 

 public repository of books upon Gardening which can be 



