356 Analysis of Scientific Books and Memoirs. 



highest degree of luxury the art of cultivating exotics. Among these lat- 

 ter is particularly deserving of mention the garden of Prince Esterhazy 

 at Eisenstadt in Hungary, of which we have the following account in the 

 Bot. Zeitung for 1820. " On a hill facing the south, are erected two long 

 ranges of twelve of the most beautiful stoves, of various sizes, and varying 

 in temperature according to the nature of the plants they contain. At a 

 short distance from these, and facing the east, is another house filled with 

 Ericas, which the prince's gardener Mr Nurnmayer has raised, mostly from 

 seeds that have been received from England. There are besides many 

 frames and pits for raising plants, fruits, and pine-apples. The order, 

 neatness, and luxuriance of the inmates of these houses is truly astonish- 

 ing ; and, upon entering, one fancies himself transported to the native 

 country of the plants themselves. In the middle of one, by a large cistern 

 of water is an artificial rock clothed with beautiful ferns, and backed by 

 a specimen of Chamccrops humilis, twelve feet high. The water is filled 

 with the choicest aquatics. Desmanthus natans rises to the height of two 

 or three feet above the surface, crowned with its pretty tufts of flowers, 

 and rambles over the Mimosa natans, whose leaves and flower-buds alone 

 appear above the water. Here also is Nelumbium speciosum, with its mag- 

 nificent leaves, and many species of Nymphwa in full flower, together 

 with Aponogeton distachyon and natans. Around the rock-work is a walk, 

 on each side of which are planted palms, delighting the eye with their 

 luxuriant growth and their elegantly formed foliage. In this division we 

 found many Cacti, especially one which excited our admiration, a Cactus 

 melocacius for Turk's-Cap torch-thistle,) which was purchased in Paris 

 for the sum of 1000 florins. It is unquestionably one of the largest in 

 Germany, of an oval shape, measuring at the base 3 feet in circumference, 

 at the middle 3£ feet, and at the top 1 h. ; the height is 24 feet. Two great 

 compartments are filled with New Holland plants, among which were 

 many in blossom." 



Vienna, however, with its University Garden and the Imperial one of 

 Schoenbrun, for a long time held a pre-eminent rank, not only in Germany 

 but among similar establishments throughout the continent; and the mag- 

 nificent works to which they have given birth have been a still further 

 means of rendering them celebrated. 



A neighbouring German city, Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which, a 

 few short years ago, scarcely numbered a single botanist within its walls, 

 now possesses attractions of no ordinary kind ; and the writer of this ar- 

 ticle deeply regrets that a severe illness, which attacked him at Paris in the 

 early part of the present year, prevented him from fulfilling the plans he 

 had formed on leaving home, of visiting that interesting city, and becoming 

 personally acquainted with the botanists and the state of science there. We 

 must now therefore content ourselves with giving all we know on the sub- 

 ject, either from our correspondence, or from the German literary jour- 

 nals, * or from our acquaintance with the works that have been published 

 there. 



* Particularly the Botanischc Zeitung, where the botany cf Munich is a fre- 

 quent and favourite theme with some of its contributors. 



