Among the pleasurable engagements with 
which people have of late years been wont to 
beguile their leisure moments, that of Garden-* 
ing has held a very prominent place. Not 
content with the cultivation of culinary veget¬ 
ables, the national taste has been directed to 
the charming occupation of floriculture, and 
horticultural societies have been established in 
many sections of the country, which hold their 
annual exhibitions, where the display of flow¬ 
ers forms a prominent , if not the principal at¬ 
traction. With the growing demand for hor¬ 
ticultural and floricultural science, there has 
not been a correspondent amount of popular 
mistruction. The books on these subjects were 
more calculated for those engaged in gardening 
as a business, than for such as resorted to it, 
merely for amusement and recreation. Com- 
