PREFACE. 
We meet our friends again as after a long absence; and al- 
though our monthly correspondence with each other has already 
told of discoveries abroad, of the beauties of the earth in all re- 
gions, and of the accession of floral wealth which has been 
daily made to our native land, still it is gratifying to review the 
prosperity of the interval occupied by a two-years’ advance as 
it were from a former preface. Floral Riches it may be said 
have been heaped upon us ; but it must not be dissembled that 
counterbalancing sacrifices have been made. The names of 
Cunningham, of Douglas, of Drummond, constitute a sad me- 
morial of the efforts made to increase our botanical wealth. 
These men fell martyrs to their zeal, in collecting plants in un- 
explored lands ; can it then be subject of wonder, that the 
objects for which they ventured so much should be viewed as 
estimable to all. We say all, for there are now, but here and 
there a few, who do not feel respect, if not love, for the beau- 
ties of the parterre. — “the nobility of the garden.” 
There is, indeed, overwhelming evidence of the spread of this 
taste. Public Gardens have arisen in all directions, and Private 
Collections of Plants vie with each other in extent, and in the 
rarity of their ornaments. If our feeble efforts have communi- 
cated but a single impulse to the breast of a single individual, 
towards this improved state of feeling, we have not wrought in 
vain, since the respect for, and the study of, the works of crea- 
tion tend to make us wiser and happier, and lead us to the 
contemplation of the omniscidht dispenser of the objects we 
admire. 
These considerations, added to the increased and increasing 
encouragement which we have the gratification to acknowledge, 
