r**' ¥-31 x 



PREFACE. 



In offering to the notice of the Public a new Botanical Magazine, 

 the Editors are desirous of stating the motives which have induced 

 them to undertake it. Looking at the number of Periodicals of a 

 similar nature which in the present day are issued from the press, 

 and the talent with which some of them are conducted, the present 

 work may, by some persons, be deemed unnecessary. 



Without wishing to detract from the merit which some of the 

 publications in question undoubtedly possess, still it must be admitted 

 (and it has long been a subject of common remark) that the plates 

 which they contain, although sufficient for the purposes of botanical 

 inquiry, are but mediocre productions, as works of art. It appeared 

 to us, therefore, that a periodical which should give accurate, and at 

 the same time, highly finished representations of such plants as are 

 remarkable for their beauty, their rarity, or their peculiarity of 

 structure, was a desideratum in botanical literature. Stimulated by 

 this fact, and fully convinced of the possibility of producing, even at 

 a very moderate price, botanical plates in a style of beauty and excel- 

 lence hitherto unequalled in this country, we have accordingly intro- 

 duced to the notice of the public the Floral Cabinet. We are 

 moreover peculiarly fortunate in having access to numerous collec- 

 tions, both public and private, in which botanical novelties are 

 continually presenting themselves to our observation ; so that each 

 number may be expected to contain descriptions of one or more 

 plants not previously known in this country. The descriptions will 

 be given in popular as well as botanical language, and the station 

 of each plant in the natural and artificial arrangements indicated ; 

 accompanied at the same time by remarks on its mode of culture, 

 its native place of growth, the period of its introduction, and its 



