THE FLORIST'S GUIDE; CONTAINING PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF ANNUAL, BIENNIAL, AND PERENNIAL FLOWERING PLANTS, OF DIFFERENT CLASSES, HERBACEOUS AND SHRUBBY, BULBOUS, FIBROUS, AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED; INCLUDING THE DOUBLE DAHLIA, GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS, &c. BY T. BRIDGEMAN, New-York: PRINTED AND SOLD BY W. MITCHELL, 265 BOWERY: 1835. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by in the Clerk's office, of the District Court of the United States, for the PREFACE. PERHAPS there is no subject on which the mind of man can ruminate, that is better calculated to afford substantial intellectual pleasure and satisfaction, than the study of nature; especially if we view it from the consideration, that as man is subservient to God, so are all instinctive beings, as well as all the productions of the earth, subservient to, and designed for, the use of man. Man being thus dignified, and endowed with understanding, reason, and moral freedom, is exalted far above all other creatures of the earth. How important, then, that he should maintain his station in society as becomes a rational and intelligent being, instead of sinking himself, as too many do, below the meanest of the mean, by dissipation and vice. It is a fact which cannot be controverted, that the want of mental and manual employment, often proves an incentive to vice, which infallibly will produce misery; and, so surely as the earth will bring forth. noxious weeds when left uncultivated, so surely will one vice beget others; which, if not eradicated, will multiply to an alarming extent, until its victims become a pest to civil society, and a disgrace to man. kind. Now as happiness is preferable to misery, virtue to vice, knowledge to ignorance, and order to confusion, how important is it that those who make pretensions to rationality, should employ their leisure hours in a manner calculated to insure the greatest amount of that which is intrinsically valuable.. What subject can be better calculated to promote, such a desideratum than the subject of cultivation when viewed in all its bearings? But as we are about treating of Flowers, I would confine my ideas, as nearly as possible, to the object in view; trusting, that while the hand is employed in cultivating the transient beauties of the Garden, that the attentive mind will feast and fare daintily on the study of nature, and in the end enrich itself with solid and lasting good. As an excitement to such study, the following thoughts are submitted. Nature in itself is beautiful, enchantingly beautiful, but it is the province of man to adorn it; to collect |