704. WHAT OUE NEIGHBOUES THINK OP US 



LXXXVII.— WHAT OUR NEIGHBOURS THINK 



OF US AND OUR GARDEN. 



Happy are they that Lear their detractions and can put them to mending. 

 Happier still, those who have none to mend. In either view it is well to 

 hear what others think of us. If there is nothing by which we may profit 

 for correction, there must at least he something which will gratify by 

 approval. Notices of our garden and our shows have at different times 

 "Sippeared in the French papers, but we have met with no pleasanter account 

 of what our neighbours on the other side of the Channel think of us and 

 them, than a narrative of his impressions on a visit to London in June lasi^ 

 given in a recent number of the *' Eelgique Horticole," by M. Ed. Morren, 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Li^ge. 



A translation of that portion of his '^ Impressions de Voyage," which 

 may be more especially interesting to our Fellows, follows. 



'^HORTICULTURE IN LOXDO:^r. 



"England possesses the two greatest powers of the 19th 

 century — capital and a practical spirit. It is au adult nation, 

 which has good right to be proud of itself. We (the Belgians) 

 have yet to make many efforts before we can reach the level 

 which she now occupies. What a singular thing I All the 

 animal and vegetable races attain a peculiar perfection in 

 England; — men, women, horses, dogs, sheep, oxen, fowls, and 

 all the other domestic animals ; the vegetable races are not 

 less improved. It is not merely labour, observation , or no 

 matter what mode of selection that has produced such extra- 

 ordinary results. The English are also assisted by their climate. 

 Of all the temperate regions it is the most favoured, no doubt 

 from its vicinity to the sea. Their climate is essentially tempe- 

 rate, without any extraordinary extremes ; the winters are less 

 rude, and the summers less fierce, than with us. One can see 

 this almost immediately after disembarking. Thus, our broom, 

 which braves the frosts of winter and the burning heats of the 

 sun upon our arid coasts of Belgium, is replaced around London 

 by the gorse {Ulex Europceiis), a much more southern plant. 

 One sees in Kichmond Park, among other things, vast plains of 

 ferns {Pteris aquilina), which, with us, only grow under the 

 shelter of groves or coppice, and which without that shade would 

 soon be roasted. The Portugal laurel forms, in all the gardens. 



