INTRODUCTION. 



Vll 



it will be found invaluable. Although the publications in 

 Europe on Gardening and Floriculture are profuse^ yet many 

 of their directions^ when practiced in the United States, 

 prove almost a dead letter. Not so with their architectural 

 and horticultural designs. The estates of the wealthy are 

 susceptible of great improvement; they want more of the 

 picturesque, and (to use the words of the veteran pioneer of 

 horticulture) gardenesque effect, to relieve their premises 

 from the monotonous erections and improvements which 

 seem to govern all. On culture, a work adapted to the cli- 

 mate must (and no other can) be the guide in this country: 

 on this account, a work like the present has been a desidera- 

 tum to aid the very rapid advancement of the culture of flow- 

 ers among the intelligent of our flourishing republic. 



ROBERT BUIST. 



Philadelphia, October ^ 1850. 



