For the province of Savona the cultivation of pot plants in nurseries represents a productive sector of great importance: almost 1.200 firms, mainly located in the Albenga area, employ over 4.000 people, occupy 500 hectares in the open and 400 hectares of greenhouses, tunnels and shaded ground, and produce an average turnover of 400 billion Lire (about 200,000,000 Euros) per year thus causing inductive processes of great economical value to the commercial and handicraft sectors.

The nurseries cultivating potted plants in this Province are the heirs of a long and well established tradition of high quality horticulture. By renewing their productive methods, by improving their professional skills and by better knowing the national and international markets, they have acquired with time a quantity of technical abilities which are reflected in their range of products which present a high and steady qualitative standard, so much so as to be considered points of reference and comparison.

The produce of the Province of Savona is the result of advanced processes which, helped by a particularly favourable climate, therefore it requires few protective and stimulating interventions, thus reducing the chances of a negative impact on the environment, in line with Community and national guidelines which consider the environment as the most important product of agriculture.

Focusing almost exclusively on the production of flowering, ornamental and ornamental aromatic pot plants, with this catalogue, the flower cultivation in nurseries in this Province, takes a further meaningful step towards the realisation of a global quality system, intended to satisfy the customer's needs.
This catalogue, which can certainly be improved, has been conceived as a work instrument, and it lists and pictures in 181 index-cards the most significative and economically relevant species of pot plants of the local production, indicating their main commercial variants: varieties, forms of rearing, dimensions of the container and other useful information: needs and characteristics of the plant, commercial calendar, etc.. As regards to the possible forms of rearing and packaging of the plants, the catalogue briefly underlines the productive standards of the Firms in the Savona area, which are largely exceeded by the producers with constantly evolving variants in order to satisfy and anticipate the consumers¹ taste throughout Europe.

Instructions
The plants are listed according to the alphabetical order oftheir scientific name. For every plant it has been reported the type, the species, the family to which it belongs, possible synonyms under which the species is also known, the common name or names in Italian, English, French and German.
According to the present convention, the type is indicated first, with a capital letter, then the species, with a small letter, and, separately, the family, with a capital letter.
In some cases the indication ofthe species is replaced by the abbreviation 'cv.pl.' which indicates the presence ofseveral varieties obtained by means ofgenetic selection. In other cases the name ofthe species is substituted by the abbreviation 'sp.pl.', and this occurs when the index-card concerns several plants ofthe same type belonging to different species. An ³X² before the name indicates a hybrid among plants belonging to different types.

There are four indexes at the end ofthe catalogue: in Italian, French, English and German.
In order to simplify research within the indexes, both the scientific and the known synonyms as well as the common name are listed. Next to the Latin name, always in bold type, appears the common name before the page number.
The synonyms in Latin, in a light type, refer back to the exact scientific name, according to the present classification. The common name, always in a light type, refers back to the scientific name. Please bear in mind that the botanical classifications are sometimes reviewed and changed, therefore it may occur that a particular species is now reported under a different type form the one it used to be in the past. In these cases the previous denomination is provided as a synonym.

The following example may be helpful:

testi tratti da:

- Type and species: Danae racemosa
- Family: Ruscaceae (Liliaceae)
- Synonym: Ruscus racemosus
- Common name: ALEXANDRIAN LAUREL