75 



feet long and forty feet high, built in the form of a paraboloid, 

 purely of glass, kept together by a delicate but strong frame of small 

 iron ribs. This dome is heated by steam, when the rays of the. sun 

 are found insufficient to wann it. In ascending to the upper part of 

 it by an elegant stage thirty feet high,-we thence enjoy a scene 

 entirely novel to a native of Europe : the tropical plants of both^ 

 hemis|)heres, the eastern and the western, are stretched below at 

 our feet ; and the prospect is similar . to what might be presented on 

 a bill clothed with tropical verdure, through an opening in which 

 we might look at the scenery beyond,. A slight touch with one 

 finger suffices to bring down from the light roof of this dome a fine 

 shower of rain, which sprinkles all the exotic vegetation among which 

 you. walk. To this gentle and careful manner of watering the plants, 

 (the nearest mode of imitating nature,) may be ascribed the rich luxu- 

 riance of the inmates of this stove. Besides this house, there are 

 some twenty others, from one hundred and fifty to three .hundr^ 

 feet long, and greenhouses of various dimensions ; all situated in two 



large gardens, containing about one hundred acres, divided by a 

 "Vvall, in which plantations are scattered. One of the houses, built 

 after the newest plan with convex windows, is stocked with nearly 

 four hundred kinds of Heath. I am spared the task of enumerating 

 the rarities of this garden, by the 13th edition of its Catalogue, 

 published in 1823 ; and the pretty work called the Botanical CaZ^i- 

 «ef, which appears regularly. — ^As we were walking in the garden, 

 through ranges of Camellia, Rhododendron, Azalea, &c. accompanied 



X 



by one of the sons of Mr. Loddiges, we took the liberty of asking 

 him what might be the value of the plants in the whole collection, 

 supposing that every one in the Catalogue were sold according to its 

 price as there marked? " About 200,000/." was the reply : that is, 

 2,800,000 florins. The cultivation of gardens cannot therefore 

 be so paltry an occupation as some individuals at the University of 

 Landshut would have us to believe, who, while they will spend 

 6000 florins In a beer cellar, yet allow the botanical garden there, 

 which might serve as a nursery-ground for the whole country, to fall 

 to decay in a manner as useless as it is mean ; and this too, when 

 the gardens of the other Universities of Germany have been lately 

 doubled and trebled in extent. As President of the Botanical Gar- 



