THE FLORIST. 
♦ 
In this number we present our subscribers with a double 
illustration, in acknowledgment of the cordial and disinterested 
services of our contributors and friends. We believe it is now 
pretty generally understood that The Florist is an amateur 
production; that its proprietors are the purchasers ; and that 
the larger the sale, the better the work is intended to be. 
When it was projected, we presumed that its sale would be 
500 copies per month; and upon this calculation, in our 
first prospectus we stated that it would be “ illustrated with 
a coloured drawing, or a woodcut, according to circum¬ 
stances.” Instead of 500 copies, the immediate demand for 
the first number was nearly 900 ; and presuming from this 
that the work would meet with a very liberal support, the 
expenses w T ere immediately increased by arrangements for per¬ 
manently supplying, not a coloured plate and woodcu't alter - 
nately, but both together. But this additional expense has not 
yet been met by a corresponding sale, and it remains for us to 
state, that 1500 copies at least must be circulated if it is to be 
continued on its present scale ; and it must be done as well in 
every way , or it will be discontinued . If we do not return 
thanks for “ flattering encouragement,” and indulge in the 
notes of self-approbation on our labours so common on these 
occasions, it is simply because we do not feel them. We be¬ 
lieve the obligations, if any, lie upon the side of our readers. 
Those only who know how closely engaged such contributors 
as Messrs. Horner, Rivers, Story, Edwards, Turner, and 
others are, can measure their kindness in supplying us with 
monthly papers ; and we are sure we speak their sentiments 
when we say, that The Florist is only half performing its pur¬ 
pose, unless it is more generally used for recording observations 
and communicating facts than it is at present. Many are de¬ 
terred from contributing to our pages, because, say they, “ we 
cannot write for the public eye.” May we tell them why they 
cannot ? purely because they do not set about it in as simple 
a manner as if writing to a familiar friend. They are not, per¬ 
haps, aware that one-half of what they see in print from cor- 
no. v. i 
