PREFACE. 
The close of another volume of our labours affords us an oppor- 
tunity of ag'ain meeting- our friends in a preface. Our work has 
now spread over eight by-gone years, and we cannot affect in- 
sensibility in congratulating, not only ourselves, but the hun- 
dreds who have felt so warm an interest in the Botanic Garden, 
that its success is still unabated. Its circulation has increased 
with its continuance; its friends, of course, with its circulation; 
and based, as it is, on economy, and, perhaps, it may be allow- 
ed us to add, on changeless and careful execution, it may reason- 
ably be anticipated that the sphere of its popularity will progres- 
sively enlarge. 
There are very few works that, in progress of time, do not, for 
want of materials, exhaust or diminish the pleasure which they 
originally excited : our sources, on the contrary, become richer 
and richer; our materials increase as we proceed. The immea- 
surable supplies which the blessings of peace have opened to us 
appear inexhaustible. Various parts of the globe are daily add- 
ing- to the beauties of our open borders ; and of late years, by the 
accumulation of exotics, the British parterre may be thought to 
rival the glowing profusion of the tropics. 
The utility of an acquaintance with the riches and beauties of 
vegetable nature, which embellish every villa and cottage, is now 
universally felt; and it can scarcely be doubted, but that in 
