ADVERTISEMENT. 
Considering the already elevated and rapidly rising condition of botanical 
and floricultural science, it is peculiarly encouraging to the editor of the 
Magazine of Botany to find that, with so many other and more talented 
individuals exerting their powers in the same service, his humble efforts to 
aid in spreading a higher intellectual appreciation of these interesting 
subjects, meet with such stedfast and munificent support. 
The completion of another volume furnishes an appropriate occasion for 
surveying attentively the paths we have traversed during the past year. 
Such a review, while engendering some degree of self-satisfaction, begets 
also a feeling of genuine humility. We candidly opine that, to the critical 
discernment of the professed botanist, some trifling inaccuracies will be 
apparent ; at the same time, we may securely venture to affirm that these 
are neither numerous nor important. It is to the gardener, and the cul- 
tivator of every rank — whether engaging manually in the necessary opera- 
tions, or only experiencing delight in their supervision — that we have 
especially endeavoured to adapt the present volume ; and for the latter 
class we have striven so to blend the utile et dulce^ that nothing distasteful 
or unedifying might be presented to their inspection. 
In the world of floricultural fashion — for, as in all other pleasing 
pursuits, the elite of its votaries have recognized and fluctuating favourites — 
epiphytal Orchidacese still maintain an almost undivided sway. Of these, 
the noble collection at Chatsworth, and frequent visits to the best nursery 
establishments, have enabled us to publish figures of many novel and 
splendid species ; and from the same sources, we have continued to collect 
and embody a fund of useful information respecting their culture, such as 
