PAXTON'S 
MAGAZINE OF GARDENING AND BOTANY. 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
J^^Mj^ N the 1st of January, 1849, we issued the concluding Number of 
|||SmjJe our Magazine of Botany, the work being now completed in fifteen 
volumes, portions of which have regularly appeared in monthly parts 
^■^^^ during the last fifteen years. The original design of the Editor has 
been fulfilled, and the success of his labours has far exceeded the highest expectations 
he had entertained. 
During the lengthened period which has elapsed since that work commenced, 
how many are the occurrences which have taken place — how numerous the changes 
which might be noticed — ^how many of its earliest supporters have disappeared 
from this scene of action, and are succeeded by others, equally, if not more 
interested in the subjects on which we have treated; — how wonderfully every 
department of knowledge has advanced; and what a vast difference there is in 
general cultivation compared with that of fifteen years ago : — the principles by 
which the various gardening operations are now conducted, were then very little 
understood, although the manner of performing them had been handed down from 
father to son for successive generations. 
Garden structures for plants and fruits are also very different to what they then 
were ; the system of heating and ventilation has received a large share of attention ; 
and, being conducted on scientific principles, the atmosphere of our glass-houses, 
which were formerly unhealthy, and often pestiferous, have now, generally speaking, 
become sweet and wholesome ; while bottom heat by fermenting materials, has 
yielded to hot-water tanks. 
Botany and other sciences have also advanced in an equal ratio ; field after field 
has been traversed by Botanical collectors. Desert v^lds, exposed to the burning rays 
of a tropical sun, or dense woods where those rays have never penetrated, and which 
were perhaps never before, since their creation, impressed with a human foot, — have 
been explored, and their magnificent or curious products brought to light. The 
means by which this vast change has been effected, must be mainly attributed to a 
most liberal support on the part of the public, and the united energies both of 
scientific and practical men. Horticultural and other societies have encouraged 
and stimulated to exertion ; and publications teeming with botanical and horticultural 
intelligence have difi'used the acquired knowledge ; and thus we have been brought, 
step by step, to the present bright and eventful period in the history of Gardening 
and Botany. 
VOL. I. NO. I. B 
