480 Natural History in jForeign Countries, 



Carlsruhe, N'ov. 50. — In the Museum here there is the best collection of 

 shells which we have seen out of Paris, in excellent preservation, but, un- 

 happily for the visitor, not named. A number of the specimens are very 

 striking, from their size or singularity of form ; and of some of the rarest, 

 as of the Geometrical Stair (?), there are duplicates and triplicates. The 

 collection was made by degrees, .at the expense of the late Marchioness 

 Caroline Louisa, known to botanists by the genus of exotic trees Carolines. 

 Of the C. prfnceps there is a dried specimen, framed and glazed, suspended 

 in the museum. The collection of Mammalia and other zoological sub- 

 jects is limited, but still respectable, though not in remarkably good order, 

 and none of the species named. Among the curiosities is a fibrous or fox- 

 tail root of P6pulus italica, the thickest part of which does not exceed one 

 fourth of an inch, while its length is 24 ft. A small root had found its way 

 into a wooden pipe which conveyed water to a fountain, and gradually 

 increased in length and in number of fibres, lessening, of course, the quan- 

 tity of water delivered, till at last the current was entirely stopped, when, 

 the pipe being taken up, the root was removed. 



The collection of minerals is rich. Besides the granites, marbles, ores, 

 stalactites, petrifactions, crystallisations, salts, agates, and other rare stones 

 of the country, there is a collection of Siberian minerals, presented by the 

 late Emperor of Russia, containing emeralds estimated to be worth 14,000 

 florins ; a mass of rock crystal, 2 ft. square by 18 in. deep, for which, accord- 

 ing to the guide, two Englishmen offered 20,000 florins j a number of large 

 masses and beautifully formed specimens of rock crystal, from St. Gothard ; 

 a piece of the trunk of a petrified beech tree, 2^ ft. in diameter and 5 ft. 

 long; bones of the head and legs of a mammoth ; the head of a rhinoceros ; 

 a great number of impressions of fishes, plants, leaves, &c. The apartment 

 in which these articles are exhibited is too small, and it is also badly lighted ; 

 still the collection is very interesting, and we cannot but regret that it is not 

 placed in a suitable building, with all the ai'ticles conspicuously named, and 

 a careful and skilful attendant appointed to keep the whole in proper 

 order. We think it would contribute to the instruction and enjoyment oi 

 the public who visit such museums, and especially of country people who 

 have not much leisure for reading or the culture of their minds, if a pro- 

 fessor or professors were appointed to show and describe the articles, and 

 even if the professors were to accompany their indicative remarks by others 

 of a scientific, philosophical, moral, or theological character, according to 

 the apparent wants and wishes of the visitor. It would not cost the three 

 governments of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, for each professor of 

 this description, more than what it now costs them for each couple of game- 

 keepers. Gmelin, the professor of botany here, is said to be occupied 

 in preparing a catalogue of this museum ; but, as he was at this time absent, 

 we had not an opportunity of ascertaining what progress he had made. 



There was formerly an interesting raenagery in the grand-ducal garden 

 here, kept up at the expense of the same munificent princess, who devoted, 

 as we were told, her pin-money to the formation of the collection of shells 

 in the museum, already mentioned ; but, at her death, the menagery was 

 sold, and, as at Stuttgard, the skins of some of the animals are now in the 

 museum. 



The Grand-Ducal Botanic Garden is known, by the Hortus CarlsrwkanuSf 

 to contain one of the first collections of exotics in Germany. Cliamas'rops 

 humilis ripens perfect fruit here every year, the plant bearing both male 

 and female flowers. Wistam Consequawa (Glycine sinensis) appears to 

 have been introduced here long before it was known in Britain, there being 

 a large plant against the end of a green-house, which has been there for 

 upwards of fifteen years, under the name of Glycine arborea : it is as hardy 

 as Gl;ycine frut^scens, flowers profusely, and ripens seeds, from which young 

 plants have been raised. American trees and shrubs thrive remarkably 



