INTRODUCTION. 
From time immemorial Flowering Plants have been objects of especial 
care and delight; but probably at no period was there a greater interest 
exhibited, both as regards the introduction of new ones, or the cultivation 
of those we already possess, than at the present. Botanical collections are 
to be found in almost every part of the globe, from the torrid regions of 
India to the cold and icy poles. 
In consequence of these exertions great numbers of new plants are 
annually introduced ; and in a few years, should these additions continue, 
our present extensive collections will appear comparatively scanty and 
meagre. 
That these valuable introductions may be rendered of general utility, 
several splendid botanical works, containing coloured figures, are published 
periodically ; and during the past year nearly two hundred new plants have 
been figured in them, some of which are exceedingly beautiful. 
This regular annual increase, added to the stock already in this country 
(nearly thirty thousand), does not merely swell the size of our botanical 
catalogue, but renders indispensable the existence of a work which will be 
an unerring guide in the selection and nurture of such as are worthy of 
extensive cultivation ; and yet of so low a price as to be within the reach of 
all classes. 
This selection, it is true, might be made from the botanical works already 
in course of publication ; but, it must be confessed, the high price of these 
places them beyond the reach of most flower cultivators : while the cheap 
periodicals, although unobjectionable in this respect, are manifestly defective 
in other points of greater importance ; the plates they contain bearing but 
little resemblance to the plants they are intended to represent. 
To obviate these objections, each Number of the Magazine of Botany 
vol. I.— NO. i. 
B 
