BRIEF REMARKS. 137 



in France. Camellias and North American Azaleas fetch most extra- 

 vagant prices. The same gentleman has a large collection of Rhodo- 

 dendron ponticum maximum, and other species; but we look in vain 

 for out-door Azaleas, Calceolarias from Chili, or Cacti from tropical 

 America. As for Myrtles, Pomegranates, Laurels, Jasmines, climbing 

 Roses, Dahlias, Pinks, and Spanish Jasmines, they are rare and costly. 



" Besides evergreen shrubs, M. Alwarch cultivates, though upon a 

 smaller scale, out-door shrubs. We principally noticed some bushy 

 plants, capable of resisting the severe frost of the country, sucli as 

 Cornus mascula, alba, and sanguinea, Elders, Spiraea laevigata, rosea, 

 and ulmifolia, common Lilacs, Chamoe cerasus, Snowdrops, Snowberries, 

 Service-trees, Sweet Chestnuts, Pteleas, Poplars, especially the true 

 sweet-scented suaveolens ; Caragana, with which beautiful undulating 

 hedges are made ; the charming red-fruited Acer tataricum ; Puck- 

 thorns, and particularly the one from Tartary, which constitutes a 

 large part of the live hedges in the country ; lastly, Crataegus pur- 

 purea, with its handsome foliage, far surpassing in colour that of C. 

 alba. The latter plant attracted my especial attention ; its beauty, the 

 rapidity of its growth, and other excellent qualities, enable the Russians 

 to make live hedges, which we should very much like to see introduced 

 into our own country. 



" Flower Markets. — One of the first things which strike a stranger 

 entering St. Petersburgh is the evident passion which all the inhabit- 

 ants, rich and poor, old and young, have for flowers. The eye 

 admires, with surprise and delight, the halls and rooms of all classes, 

 which, for eight or nine months in the year, are more like conserva- 

 tories than the interior of common dwelling-houses, being gay with 

 plants of every clime. Whilst out of doors the country is desolated by 

 the severity of the cold, in-doors we find Palms and Figs, Musa<, 

 Dracaenas, Marantas, the large-leaved Arums, Camellias, Rhododen- 

 drons, and Azaleas ; also some beautiful Leguminosas, Mimosas, 

 Cytisus in pots, Myrtles of all sorts, Olea fragrans, the large Clethra, 

 different sorts of Laurel, and lastly, but most conspicuous, are the 

 hundred -leaved and four-seasons Rose, Hyacinths, and other flowering 

 plants. 



" The working classes, who cannot command a wide range of tempe- 

 rature, prefer such plants as Crinum, Maranta, Hoya carnosa, Asclepiis 

 curassavica, and Lantana ; Oranges, Jasmines, Plumbago capen.sis, 

 Ixora, Gardenia, Echium, and occasionally, too, the common Laurel, 

 Cytisus, and Olea fragrans. 



" The poor, who are compelled to live continually in the town, grow 

 Pelargoniums, Roses, Verbenas, Fuchsias, Wallflowers, and, in spring, 

 Lilies of the Valley. 



" Flower Trade in St. Petersburgh.— A fair, which is held as soon 

 as the frosts are over, and which lasts a whole month, viz., from the 

 35th of May to the 25th of June, is almost exclusively a flower fair ; 

 it is at this fair that the nobility and country gentlemen make their 

 purchases for decorating their country houses, to which they are about 

 to retreat. The Bowers are supplied almost entirely from Germany. 

 We remarked the hundred- leaved and four-seasons Rose, planted in a 



Vol. xix. No. 54.— N.8. N 



