^t© Natural History in- Foreign Cmintries, 



same disposition to produce blossoms. The amentums of the male flower 

 are small, like those of the walnut. Other interesting gpecimens are: — 

 Gymnocladus canadensis, which flowers and fruits most abundantly every 

 year, and the pods, which remain on the tree till spring, produce a fine effect 

 during winter. J^uglans nigra, very large, and bearing immense crops of 

 fruit. Qadrcus C^rris, 100 ft. high, flowers and fruits every year, but the 

 fruit never ripens, ^cer raonspessulanum, very large. Cornus alternifolia, 

 18 ft. high, iaurus Sassafras, Fiburnum nudum, Lentago, and /jrunifohum, 

 very large, iycium europae'um, as a standard, laden with fine, large, deep 

 red fruit ; very ornamental. L. barbarum beside it, with fewer, smaller, and 

 paler-coloured fruit, and with ovate leaves, while the other has lanceolate 

 leaves. Xanth6xylum/raxlneum, large; the male and female plant beside 

 each other, and ripening seeds every year. A collection of wild gooseber- 

 ries and currants, lately collected in the Vosges, among which it is possible 

 there may be some new species or varieties. /Sonchus Plumieri, also from 

 the Vosges ; it grows 5 ft. high, with fine blue flowers, and large succulent 

 leaves and stems which might probably be rendered useful in agriculture, 

 and possibly even for salading. Lycopodium denticulatum, commonly kept 

 in green-houses, and sometimes even in hot-houses, in England, but here 

 growing most luxuriantly on a bed of peat, where it remains during winter, 

 being covered with loose dry leaves. We may remark that the winters in 

 England have at least ten times as many rainy days as those of the north of 

 France, and that to render this plan of preservation successful in the for- 

 mer country, a covering of boards or. of thatch matting would require to be 

 suspended over the leaves. 



The Empress Josephine Bonaparte, allowed by all parties to have been 

 an excellent woman, and known as a great patroness of botany and garden^ 

 ing, resided three months at Strasburg in the year 1808. She walked 

 almost every day in the botanic garden, conversed respecting the collection 

 with the director and the gardener, and sent a number of exotics from Mal- 

 maison, among which the following have attained a large size, and some of 

 them are obliged to be cut down every year when replaced in their winter 

 quarters. Banksia praemorsa, .Schinus Molle, Uvularia guineensis ; Acacia 

 acanthocarpa, floribunda,and lophantha var. coarctata; i^icus pdndula, 12 ft. 

 high, and now covered with yellow fruit, about the size of gooseberries ; 

 ZVc/o«fl grandis, Cheirostemon jolatanoides j -Euphorbia 7zeriif61ia, 10 ft. 

 high ; Ekeb^rgia capensisj and (Solanum auriculatum, 10 ft. high, turned out 

 ofthe pot every year in the open garden, where it attains the height of 1 5 ft., 

 and forms a magnificent object of its kind, covered with flowers and fruit. 

 There are two large date palms, and a number of the other old inhabitants 

 of hot-houses, which we need not notice. 



Metz, Dec. 8. — There is a small Cabinet of Natural History here, formed 

 by M. HoUandre, the professor of natural history and botany and the libra- 

 rian. He has prepared most of the subjects himself, and is obviously wholly 

 devoted to natural science. He seems very properly to aim at collecting 

 together something of every order in the different classes and families of 

 animals and minerals, and has already formed a complete herbal of the 

 plants which grow in the neighbourhood of Metz. Tlie animals and birds 

 are in cases, fitted up with three or more stories of stages, each stage of 

 three or four shelves, according to the size of the subjects to be placed on 

 them. As the mineral specimens are small, there are five or six small 

 shelves to each stage devoted to that part of the collection. Nothing is 

 gained in point of room by these stages, but a great deal in the convenience 

 of viewing the objects placed on them. The cabinet tables in the middle 

 of the apartment bear glass cases with small objects in the usual manner, 

 and their interior contains a stage, facing the light, and enclosed by glazed 

 frames, for objects of a larger size. The advantage of the stage disposition 

 in -reflecting the objects to the eye, is here strikingly obvious. Every spe- 



