INTRODUCTION 
TO THE 
AMERICAN EDITION. 
It will scarcely be questioned, that whilst we, as a people, 
have greatly advanced in most of the pursuits which add to our 
physical and intellectual enjoyments, that a relish for Horticulture 
(of much importance if considered with reference to the gratifi- 
cation of the mind) has not increased in a ratio with that for other 
branches of art. Without referring to music, painting, or more 
particularly to many of the sources of enjoyment, which have 
extended and improved with the progress of our country, let us 
confine our comparison to architecture, with which refined taste 
has intimately connected two departments of gardening, namely : 
Horticulture and Arboriculture. 
In architecture, the improvement has become so general and 
extended, that as a natural result, the desire for not only conve- 
nient and comfortable, but handsome habitations, is no longer 
confined to the more wealthy classes, but enters into the wants 
of the great mass of the community. 
The plain, unpretending tenements, which filled the entire 
wish, in that particular, of former generations, are now only 
erected on the outskirts of our cities, or stand within as monu- 
ments of the simplicity of by-gone days. The stately mansion 
now rears its head, proud evidence of the result of successful 
industry, but in too many instances of that alone, for paradoxical 
as it may seem, the individual who will expend tens of thousands 
on his house and furniture, neglects the decoration of his garden, 
if indeed the desire to build in a fashionable neighbourhood has 
not rendered that intellectual appendage to a residence, out of the 
question. Have we not seen houses of the most costly character, 
placed in such confined positions, from a morbid desire to be con- 
spicuous, that the extent of garden ground scarcely afforded room 
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