We desire especially to commend to our fruit and flower growers an artist in the production of fruit and flower drawings and colorings whose works we have examined for years, and whose merits, owing to his own modesty and hesitancy in bringing himself before the public, have but by few persons been duly appreciated. If we recollect aright, when the lamented A. J. Downing prepared his copy of fruits, etc., with colored illustrations, the plates were first sent to France, for the purpose of being colored; but when returned were found so imperfect, that the author sought about for some one capable of retouching them, so that they might appear passably if not creditably. That man was found in Joseph Prestole, Sen., then a resi dent of the State of New York, now of Amana Homestead, Iowa During the past two or more years we have frequently examined his work, and we now commend him, without his knowledge of our so doing, to all our horticultural friends, and we beg to say you will find his work quite satisfactory, and his prices reasonable, and at the same time you will be assisting a man whose love of his art has kept him always far from riches.