9 
PREFACE. 
It has long been my intention to publish a series of works, which, when completed, should contain 
coloured groups of all the most ornamental flowers in British gardens, as well those grown under 
glass, as in the open air. The present work, which is the first of this series, comprises the hardy and 
half-hardy annuals; and the second will contain all the hardy and half-hardy bulbs. These will be 
followed by the biennials and perennials; the greenhouse and hothouse plants ; the orchidacese and 
the cacti; the roses and other ornamental shrubs; and, lastly, the ornamental flowering-trees. 
Each work will be complete in itself, so that the proprietor of a small town-garden, who can grow 
only annuals or bulbs, need only purchase the volume, or volumes, containing the plants he feels 8 
inclined to cultivate: while the proprietor of a greenhouse, or of any kind of hothouse, by 
purchasing the volumes containing the plants for each, may see at one glance the most ornamental 
flowers suitable for his purpose, and obtain directions for their culture. Besides this, as each work 
will be arranged according to the natural system, the whole series will form a more comprehensive 
illustration of the kind of plants belonging to the different orders, than any other work which has 
yet been published; and it will therefore be very useful in giving young people general ideas of the 
arrangement of plants, and thus facilitating their study of botany. 
It was originally my intention to give some plans of flower-gardens suitable for annuals at the 
end of the present work; and similar plans at the end of each of the other works, suitable to the 
