INTRODUCTION. V 
it will be found invaluable. Althougb the publications in 
Europe on Gardening and Floriculture are profuse, yet many 
of their directions, when practised 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 
picturescpie, 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 deside- 
ratum to aid the very rapid advancement of the culture of 
flowers among the intelligent of our flourishing republic. 
ROBERT BUIST. 
Philadelphia, February, 1852. 
