INTRODUCTION, 
'• The love of flowers," says Dr. Lindley, " is a holy feeling, inseparable from our very nature ; it 
exists alike in savage and civilized society ; and it speaks with the same powerful voice to the great and 
wealthy, as to the poor and lowly." The truth of these observations must be felt by every one. We 
love flowers from our earliest childhood, and even in extreme old age the sight of them recalls 
something of the glow of youth. The love of flowers is calculated to improve our best feelings, and 
subdue our bad ones ; and we can hardly contemplate the beauty and richness of a flower-garden 
without feeling our hearts dilate with gratitude to that Almighty Being who has made all these 
lovely blossoms, and given them to us for our use. 
Of all kinds of flowers, the ornamental garden annuals are perhaps the most generally interesting ; 
and the easiness of their culture renders it peculiarly suitable for a feminine pursuit. The pruning and 
training of trees, and the culture of culinary vegetables, require too much strength and manual labour ; 
but a lady, with the assistance of a common labourer to level and prepare the ground, may turn a 
barren waste into a flower-garden with her own hands. Sowing the seeds of annuals, watering them 
transplanting them when necessary, training the plants by tying them to little sticks as props, or by 
leading them over trellis-work, and cutting ofi^ the dead flowers, or gathering the seeds for the next 
year's crop, are all suitable for feminine occupations ; and they have the additional advantage of 
inducing gentle exercise in the open air. 
It is astonishing how much beauty may be displayed in a little garden only a few yards in extent by 
a tasteful arrangement of annual flowers. All that is required is a knowledge of the colours, forms, 
and habits of growth of the different kinds. Many of the flowers now grown in our gardens are not 
worth culture, but they are grown year after year, because their cultivators know them and do not 
know anything better. Many very beautiful flowers have been introduced, grown for a season or two, 
and then thrown out of cultivation from there being no demand for them ; and this want of demand 
has arisen from very few flower-growers being aware of their existence. It is true that most of these 
flowers were figured on their first introduction in one or other of the botanical periodicals ; but in 
b 
