COMPANION 
TO 
THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 
It is ever a pleasing task to have to chronicle success, and to announce, 
as one of its consequences, what we hope may he considered an im¬ 
provement. We felt quite confident that the faithful and carefully 
coloured drawings of Mr. Andrews would, in time, make their way 
amongst the flower-loving public; while our own desire has been to bring 
before our friends such subjects as would be likely to interest them. It 
is, therefore, with much gratification that we are enabled to announce 
to our subscribers that it has been determined to add to the f Floral 
Magazine/ a monthly f Companion 9 of general information. This course 
has been urged upon us by friends, and with the present month we com¬ 
mence our new arrangements. In this f Companion! it is intended to in¬ 
troduce papers on various subjects connected with horticulture. We 
hope to find room for notices of correspondents and of the principal ex¬ 
hibitions as they take place, reviews of books bearing on our subject, and 
such other matters as are likely to interest, without increasing the price 
of the magazine. We trust that our efforts to meet the wishes of the 
continually increasing circle of our subscribers will be appreciated. 
We take this opportunity of soliciting correspondence, and of saying 
that we shall only be too happy to give wdiatever information lies in our 
power, on all questions bearing on that department of Horticulture for 
the advantage of which the f Floral Magazine' is now firmly established. 
PROSPECTS OF FLORICULTURE IN 1863. 
The rapid growth of the interest that attaches itself to everything con¬ 
nected with the pursuit of Floriculture, may well surprise even those 
who, like ourselves, can look back upon upwards of a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury, in which our love for if has never waxed cold, even though the 
circumstances under which it has been sometimes pursued have been 
such as would have quenched a love less ardent than ours has been. 
Whether we regard the number of exhibitions which are yearly held in 
the great centre of everything in England,—London,—the extension of 
the taste for gardening amongst those who have heretofore been unin¬ 
fluenced by it, the number of publications connected with its interests, 
the eagerness with which information on all points is sought after, the 
