TALKS ABOUT FLOWERS.

BY
MRS. M. D. WELLCOME.

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR,
BY I. C. WELLCOME,
YARMOUTH, ME.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881,
By I. C. WELLCOME,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

PRINTED BY B. THURSTON & CO.,
PORTLAND, MAINE.

PREFACE.

To all Flower Lovers who may read these pages, we come with kindly greetings.To you we dedicate our Work.

Encouraged by the many testimonials of favor with which our Flower Sketches havebeen received, which have appeared in the Boston Journal, Portland Transcript, andthe leading Floricultural journals, we were induced to prepare this volume, intendingit to be made up chiefly of those articles revised and enlarged for this purpose; butafter entering upon this work, we found so little that was adapted for use, nearly everypage has been written while the sheets were passing through the press.

Before we were aware, the printed matter had exceeded our proposed limits, and wewere obliged to enlarge the work by additional pages, and even then omit our chapterof "Floricultural Notes," for we wished to put the book at a low price, that it mightreach the masses. As it is, we are sure that we have given you a great amount of valuableinformation, and just such as amateurs need, respecting the habits and requirementsof those flowers which are best adapted for general cultivation, and in a formspecially new and attractive, combining the history and literature of flowers, with descriptionand mode of culture.

It may be deemed strange that we should omit from a work of this character a"Talk" about the Queen of Flowers, but the subject was so full that we thought best todevote the space to other varieties and refer our readers to our recently published"Essay on Roses,"—advertised in another part of this work—in which they will findthe subject fully treated.

We would here acknowledge our obligation to Mr. James Vick for the beautiful Bouquetof Flowers which constitutes our Frontispiece.

Mrs. M. D. Wellcome.

  Yarmouth, Me., June 9, 1881.

CONTENTS.