472 Natural History in Foreign Countries, 



and is, consequently, a very superior botanist and gardener, was appointed 

 to its management. The hardy herbaceous plants are arranged in beds 

 edged with box, according to the natural system, and the hardy ligneous 

 plants are also arranged according to that system, at the north end, and 

 along part of two sides of the garden, leaving the area open to the south. 

 There are none of the specimens of extraordinary magnitude, but some are 

 worthy of notice for the progress they have made in twenty-eight years. 

 The largest specimens belong, of course, to the genus Populus ; but !i4'cer, 

 Tilia, i?etulus, Pinus, Platanus, and some other genera, have attained re- 

 spectable dimensions. A handsome specimen of Guilandinw Bonduc is here ; 

 and a T'ilia arg^ntea, grafted at the height of 6 ft. upon a common lime 

 tree, the diameter of the stock about 1 ft. 6. in., while that of the graft 

 projects abruptly, like a capital of a column, nearly 1 ft. all round, so that 

 the diameter of the graft is upwards of 3 ft. ; the head is ovate, about 50 ft. 

 high, and 30 ft. in diameter. Other specimens which have grown vigor- 

 ously are, Pinus romana, sylvestris, Miighus (such as we saw in abundance 

 in the neighbourhood of Munich), maritima, and Laricio ; iarix americana 

 /2hus Toxicodendron, and JETippophae rhamnoides. The first plant which 

 attracted our attention in the stove was Anbna Cherimolia, 1 5 ft. high, in a 

 pot not quite a foot in diameter at the surface. It was raised from seeds, about 

 twenty-eight years, ago, and fruited six or eight years ago It produced, in 

 two years, nine or ten fruit, about the size, shape, and colour of oranges, and 

 very palatable. The seeds were perfect, and young plants have been 

 raised from them, which are now nearly as large as their parent. There is 

 a specimen of i^icus bengalensis, nearly twenty feet high, with a root pro- 

 ceeding from the trunk at the height of twelve feet from the surface of the 

 pot. This root, without any assistance from art, has descended to within 

 1 ft. 8 in. of the ground ; and the fibre, in its descent, has in some places 

 become monstrous, and expanded into a lamina nearly half an inch broad. 

 Having in this state left off growing, the recommencement of growth was 

 in the form of small round fibres from the lower extremity of the lamina ; 

 these, in their turn, have again become monstrous, and the tongue- 

 shaped monstrosities again fringed with fibres, so that the entire tissue of 

 roots has rather a singular appearance. Nothing can prove more clearly 

 that the fibres of plants, like the leaves and every other accretion, are nou- 

 rished by the prepared sap of the plant directed towards them, and not 

 immediately by the substances which the roots absorb from the ground, 

 water, or air ; just, in short, as an animal is nourished by its blood, and not 

 immediately by the food received into its stomach. There is a fine plant 

 of Bombax pentaphjUum, 15 ft. high, and only ten years old, raised from 

 seeds received from Kew. Ehretfa rinifolia, Malpighia ijrens, and Piper re- 

 ticulatum, received from the late Mr. Loddiges. Psidium montanum, 15 ft. 

 high. Sterculia />latanif61ia, upwards of 20 ft. high, raised from seeds, 

 twenty years ago. In the green-house there is a considerable collection of 

 Cape and Australian plants, the greater part received direct from Kew gar- 

 dens, either as seeds or small plants. Massonia pustulata. Primula sinensis, 

 and fourteen sorts of Chrysanthemum, are the principal plants in flower. Mi 

 Coutie, though within three weeks of being eighty years of age, is still as 

 fond of plants as ever, and showed us some recent arrivals from M. Cels, 

 of Paris, which he had received in exchange ; a proof, if proof were 

 wanting, of the congeniality of botanical and gardening pursuits to age, 

 which ought to induce such as are young to take every reasonable op- 

 portunity of laying in a stock of ideas on these subjects, for use in that 

 period of life. Of the numerous nurseries and gardens in the neighbour- 

 hood of the town, and of the pine-apples grown in this garden for the use 

 of the Mayor of Metz,we shall have to speak in the Gardener's Magazine. 

 — Cond. 



