SIX and a half years ago the plan of The Horticulturist was matured and brought before the public. Many of its supporters and subscribers have been so from the commencement, and are familiar with its history; and all know the melancholy fatality which renders its removal expedient. -It now goes into other hands, but its mission and its sphere are unchanged. We bid it not adieu; for we trust to meet it often - and greet it as a powerful co-laborer in the cause of rural improvement. It has begun a good work, and got strong hold on the good will of all who have been familiar with its pages.

The Horticulturist was a piolieer work, and has held its ground almost without competition. It has formed a taste for the scientific pursuit of Horticulture in all its branches, and has exerted no inconsiderable influence in placing the arts of taste upon a new basis. The design of this Journal has proved to be one of those happy thoughts, which come only now and then, and lead one to wonder why it had not occurred before - a thought which, though new, strikes favorably upon public sentiment, and soon becomes as common property, as though it never had an originator. The extent to which the editorials in The Horticulturist, have been copied, and the high eulogiums which have everywhere been passed upon them, prove this to a demonstration. The united voice of the country has uttered no unmeaning to tribute to the memory of Mr. Downing. Every one felt that a tongue, eloquent of beauty, and a pen powerful of good, were motionless, and all became more fully conscious of the influence which had silently but surely been exerted on them, and discovered numerous ways in which this influence had wrought out improvement and added to the sum of happiness. *Such sad occasions afford epochs from which one dates back and reaches forward, anxious to gather, in the teachings of the past, hope and encouragement for the future.

It is said that he who rescues a principle from oblivion, or starts a new one into life, and brings is home to the hearts of his fellow men, is more a benefactor of his race, than he who defends the rights of his country, or fights its battles. This being the ease, Mr. Downing and The Horticulturist, are inseparably connected with the refinement and prosperity of our country; for as are the homes of a people so are their lives. It is true that when the political and ecclesiastical history of this century is written, the name of Downing may not appear, but in that unwritten history of social progress, in the councils of the fireside, which often stamp the character of the man upon the child - in the record of the posthumous judgment of future years we shall find that he was the champion of "a truth, Which woke to perish never." A beautiful home, as an antidote to the restless roving tendency of the times, - the love of nature instead of the ambition of display - the culture of the mind and the soil, instead of the perilous haste to be rich - these arc the principles which distinguish Mr. Downing and The Horticulturist.

The Horticulturist has done more than to inculcate the principles of taste and teach the pleasures of rural life. It has been a scientific and practical work, and by exciting a generous rivalry among gardeners and amateur cultivators, has raised the standard of Horticulture and increased the number engaged in its pursuit. To be assured of this, one need only refer to the reports of Horticultural exhibitions in the early volumes, and contrast them with those of the present year. The competitors, the varieties of fruits, flowers and vegetables grown, and the products, have increased four-fold - and we are only new beginners. One needs a prophetic vision to say what the future of Horticulture in this country is destined to be. Favored, as we are, by soil and climate, we may certainly anticipate brilliant results.

As we have before intimated, The Horticulturist will have our best wishes in the future, as it has had our best efforts in the past. We shall rejoice in its success as arguing well for the stability of society, and affording a well grounded hope for the permanence of our institutions. We shall watch its progress as a sure evidence of the spread of general refinement, and a proof that the germ of a healthy, social American character, which has so auspicously put forth its shoots, is springing up into fresh life and beauty, and promising a maturity rich in good things. We have full confidence that those who are, hereafter, to have this journal in charge will sustain in a good degree its high reputation and deserve well of its former patrons.

With sincere thanks to all those who have sustained the Horticulturist by their contributions and subscriptions, we commit it to other's hands and other's watchfulness, trusting that it will long be sustained to accomplish its mission and spread beauty and happiness over our laud and in our homes.