PREFACE. 
On completing and presenting to its numerous readers 
and the public generally, the Second Volume of The 
Florist’s Journal, we find ourselves entitled to congra¬ 
tulate both them and us. We laid down an original and 
definite plan for ourselves on the first commencement of 
our labours;—this plan was not to give a mere list of 
flowers from the catalogue, and a tame ’and empirical 
account of every one’s mode of culture, unsupported by 
general reasonings, and those appeals to the grand work¬ 
ings of nature, for which the works of our predecessors 
might be examined in vain, as they contented themselves 
with the old packhorse ways of the science. We, on the 
other hand, have endeavoured to advance equally the art 
of floriculture and the science of plants, and the result, 
though we dared scarcely hope for it at the beginning, has 
been most successful. The style of writing which our 
correspondents have adopted is an unprecedented one; 
for, instead of confining themselves to composts, manures, 
and empirical modes of treatment, they have, without 
neglecting these practical matters, brought philosophy to 
bear upon the subject, in a manner far superior to any 
thing known in the earlier botanical journals of Britain. 
Such papers can be furnished only by the ablest men of 
the practical class,—by men who have brought a sound 
