INTRODUCTION. iU 
In the arrangement of the present work, I intend to follow on a small scale the plan adopted by 
my late husband, in his well known Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs ; and it will be my ambition 
to give as clear and full an account of the annual flowers, as he has there done of the trees and shrubs 
of Britain. In pursuance of this plan, I shall first give the Botanic and English names ; next the 
synonymes, if any, and then the names of the modern EngUsh books in which the flower has been 
figured. To this, 1 shail subjoin a short botanical character, which will be followed by a popular 
description, with the geography, history, properties and uses, culture, and in short, everything worth 
knowing of the plant. 
An important feature of this work will be the directions for the culture of each flower, as on this, 
in a great measure, the appearance of the flower-garden will depend. It is a common error, to suppose 
that all that is necessary to make a showy flower-garden is to sow the ground with a great many 
different kinds of flower-seeds. A few flowers of the most briUiant and ornamental kinds, arranged so 
as to harmonize in their colours and habits of growth, cultivated with care, and trained and pruned 
into regular and compact shapes, will produce more effect than three or four times the number sown 
injudiciously, and afterwards comparatively neglected. On looking into most flower-gardens, it will be 
found that the annuals are crowded together, each tuft having been left unthinned ; and that the 
plants, having been neither trained nor pruned, present, as they grow up, the most tawdry appearance, 
without either the grace and elegance of wild nature, or the trimness and neatness of art. A flower- 
garden is essentially artificial ; not only from the avowed art displayed in its general shape, and in 
the artistical forms of its bods, but in the flowers of so many different countries, and even climates, 
being brought together in the same locality ; everything, in short, in the flower-garden, shows that it 
was planted by the hand of man ; and the flowers themselves, to be in keeping with the garden, should 
show also the hand of man in their training. Some excellent observations on this subject by Mr. 
Loudon, will be found in bis different works on Gardening, and more particularly in the Villa 
Gardener 
The botanical names of the flowers in the following pages will be those by which they are most 
generally known by the seedsmen, but I shall give the best known of the other names as synonymes, 
with their authorities, always noticing the latest ; and when practicable, without entering too much 
into detail, slightly mentioning the botanical reasons for the change. Notwithstanding this, I intend 
the botanical part of the work to be quite a subordinate feature, as I merely wish to give general ideas 
on the subject, and to render the work popular rather than too scientific. The botanical characters, 
however, though short, will be prepared with great care, and made as intelligible to the general reader 
as possible. The arrangement followed will be that of the Natural System, and I shall adopt that 
modification of it given by Dr. Lindley, in his excellent Ladies'' Botany. The great advantage of the 
Natural System to a general observer, or to any one who does not wish to go deeply into the science 
