Downing - we never write the name without emotion - said in reply to an announcement that we had pitched our tent in a rural home, now in the limits of the city of Philadelphia, " You are now one of my parish." We often wish that the man could be named on whose mantle his fine and noble spirit and refined taste had fallen; we cannot do this, but we can trace his influence on the present generation, and his parish, then a small one, has grown, though not in the same ratio, with the growth and prosperity of the country; it continues to multiply, and the greatly increased and increasing numbers of the readers of this periodical is the evidence.

The duties of the late publisher have called him from the exact niche which would enable him to devote the time and thought necessary to the circulation of a periodical widely spread and esteemed over the Union, from Texas to Maine, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Where shall the work be localised, was the question among its friends, and where seek for an editor to supply the consequent resignation of Mr. Barry, whose most able management is now forbidden by commercial engagements. Philadelphia, the geographical and climatic, as well as the horticultural centre of the Union, was believed to be the most desirable point of issue, and it was further decided in a council of the well-wishers of the work, that most of the qualifications of information and practical knowledge could be found in the correspondents of the journal, and in a city which first formed and still continues a most useful Horticultural Society, and where is contained a corps of enthusiastic lovers of rural adornment and botanical science; a centre, in fact, where Downing's parish was much enlarged - accessible to all travellers from North, South, East and West - where contributors and facts were numerous, and varied illustrations could be commanded - central also for correspondence and for distribution.

Thus far all seemed smooth, but for editing and controlling the printed contents, a selection was thought to be more difficult, till at length the expedient of a combination of qualified contributors was suggested.

It is that combination which the controlling editor, with many misgivings, has undertaken to assist in carrying out. With the aid of a number of veteran Botanists, Pomologists and Horticulturists, and with every wish on our own part to be the medium of information to our countrymen, and thus to extend the list of those who are doing so much to form a national taste essential to the nation's character, we have come before the public to perform what is in our power, and to conduct the Horticulturist in an American and national spirit; to make it the vehicle of no personal ambitions, the mouth-piece of no clique. Our object is to impart knowledge and taste through the means of the best informed correspondents, and the most able and practical writers of the age of every country where rural affairs have become a fine art, and by the devotion of our time and some little experience, united to an overshadowing love of the subject, to render the Horticulturist, if possible, at least as acceptable a visitor to its numerous patrons as heretofore it has been.

For success we rely most on our contributors, old and new; and with this avowal, we invite their aid and co-operation, for without them we are entirely sensible we must fail - with them, success, we feel assured, is certain.

Possibly there may be a few of this our newly settled parish, who will not object once more to meet in consultation an old friend in his newer studies, the editor of "Waldie's Select Circulating Library".