d
that it will seem to many of my readers, fragmentary and ill-connected.
Then again, in a city like Calcutta, it is not easy to prepare any thing
satisfactorily that demands much literary or scientific research. There
are very many volumes in all the London Catalogues, but not immediately
obtainable in Calcutta, that I should have been most eager to refer to
for interesting and valuable information, if they had been at hand. The
mere titles of these books have often tantalized me with visions of
riches beyond my reach. I might indeed have sent for some of these from
England, but I had announced this volume, and commenced the printing of
it, before it occurred to me that it would be advisable to extend the
matter beyond the limits I had originally contemplated. I must now send
it forth, "with all its imperfections on its head;" but not without the
hope that in spite of these, it will be found calculated to increase the
taste amongst my brother exiles here for flowers and flower-gardens, and
lead many of my Native friends--(particularly those who have been
educated at the Government Colleges,--who have imbibed some English
thoughts and feelings--and who are so fortunate as to be in possession
of landed property)--to improve their parterres,--and set an example to
their poorer countrymen of that neatness and care and cleanliness and
order which may make even the peasant's cottage and the smallest plot of
ground assume an aspect of comfort, and afford a favorable indication of
the character of the possessor.

D.L.R.

_Calcutta, September 21st_ 1855.

ERRATA.

A friend tells me that the allusion to the Acanthus on the first page of
this book is obscurely expressed, that it was not the _root_ but the
_leaves_ of the plant that suggested the idea of the Corinthian capital.
The root of the Acanthus produced the leaves which overhanging the sides
of the basket struck the fancy of the Architect. This was, indeed, what
I _meant_ to say, and though I have not very lucidly expressed myself, I
still think that some readers might have understood me rightly even
without the aid of this explanation, which, however, it is as well for
me to give, as I wish to be intelligible to _all_. A writer should
endeavor to make it impossible for any one to misapprehend his meaning,
though there are some writers of high name both in England and America
who seem to delight in puzzling their readers.

At the bottom of page 200, allusion is