INTRODUCTION.

It seems necessary to say a few words with regard to a work upon plants with 'beautiful leaves,' which we purpose to give to the public in monthly parts. It is in the first place intended to bring before the public generally, a pictorial history of some of the most beautiful in this fascinating branch of horticulture. Were we to introduce to your notice all plants that had beautiful leaves, the work would necessarily become expanded into volumes, instead of what is intended, namely, a volume of the choicest and most desirable species.

It is not to a special class of plants that the attention is rivetted, but to individual plants here and there, in almost every class. The Ornamental Foliaged Plants are to be found amongst the ferns, grasses, flowering shrubs, trees, and herbaceous plants; and in many instances the leaves are so strikingly conspicuous, that the flowers amongst them only rank second in beauty. Who does not admire the Cissus discolor, Croton variegata, Begonia rex, Calathea zebrina, Dieffenbachia picta, Dracaena nobilis, Anoectochilus argenteus, A. setaceus, and A. xanthophyllus, of our metropolitan and country horticultural exhibitions? Plants are cultivated for the beauty of their leaves alone, and a hot-house well stocked with such gems will always be gay.

We are aware that all leaves are beautiful to the thoughtful and careful observer of nature; the examination of each leaf reveals beauties that to the ordinary observer would pass unnoticed. All things in nature are beautiful; it is only we

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who overlook or cannot appreciate or discern the loveliness of God's creations, that have their beauties hid from us.

"Most beautiful the world is yet, and beautiful 't will prove Whilst one single God-made creature remains its charms to love; 'Tis man's own sickly blindness makes the world deform'd alone; Who know it most, see beauty most; who know it least, see none."

But beautiful leaves, as the expression is now used, signifies something more; it means "strikingly beautiful," a plant which arrests your attention from the singularity of form, or peculiarity of colour of its leaves. It is only requisite to visit our leading Nurseries, such as Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea; Rollisson, of Tooting; Jackson, of Kingston; Low, of Clapton; Henderson, of Pine-apple Place; and Henderson, of St. John's Wood, etc., in order to be convinced of the grandeur of these plants.

Within the last few years so many of these gems have been introduced into this country, that it is desirable that the most beautiful should be gathered together, and made the subject of a volume for the guidance of those who have only limited space for their cultivation on the one hand, and for those who would wish to have a copy of them on their drawing-room table on the other hand.

The present work needs no botanical classification; each plant figured, is strictly speaking, beautiful, and, as such, a coloured illustration and brief description has been devoted to it. Moreover it is not requisite to write a scientific description of each species enumerated, the work being intended more as a popular enumeration of such species: the book will therefore be written as popularly as possible, consistent with the accuracy of description that is deemed indispensable.

As there are very many plants that cannot find a place in this volume, it is intended to give an extended list of such species at the close of the work, that nothing may be wanting to render the history a useful addition to the library of the horticulturist.