386 Review of Loudon's Gardcuer''s Magazine. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. The Gardener'' s Magazine and Register of Rural and 

 Domestic Improvements. Conducted by J. C. Loudon, F. L. S., 

 H. S., &c. In Monthly Numbers. 8vo., Is. 6f/. each. No. 

 LXIII and LXIV, for June and July. 



The first article in the June number is a continuation of 

 Mr. Maddison's " observations on the gardening of Belgium." 

 They are principally confined to the amateur gardeners in 

 and around Ghent. The most celebrated, particularly in 

 stove plants, is M. Mechelynk, the following account of which 

 we extract: 



" His hot-house, like all the others in Belgium, is heavy, and has large 

 panes of glass: but his tan bed, which is edged all round with a broad 

 kerb of granite, is the very pattern of neatness; and the whole culture of 

 his hot-house plants does his gardener much credit. The plants them- 

 selves are accounted a first-rate collection; and they certainly form one 

 of which any nobleman in England might be proud. M. Mechelynk's 

 green-house plants are very fine; but neither the houses nor the plants 

 themselves are in such fine oi'der as those already mentioned: it is 

 very evident, indeed, that the gardener does not pay the green-house 

 plants the same attention as he does the stove plants; or perhaps it 

 would require an extra gai'dener, and more suitable green-houses, to keep 

 them in an equal state of perfection." 



M. Verplancke's houses are built of iron, but his collection 

 of plants is rather inferior. M. Huyttens-Kerremans "has 

 a neat green-house." M. Boddaert (of Tronchiennes, a vil- 

 lage near Ghent), a respectable farmer, has a fine house of 

 camellias, and one of geraniums. For the successful multi- 

 plication of the camellia, Mr. Boddaert is said to be unequal- 

 led. " M. Reynders of Brussels," Mr. Maddison remarks, 

 " as far as I can judge from observation, possesses the best 

 gardener in the country. His specimens of large camellias 

 are truly magnificent." 



The Ghent Horticultural Society has been in existence 

 upwards of twenty-six years. " I know of no town," ob- 

 serves Mr. Maddison " where the florimania is so strong as 

 in this : persons of all trades and professions must have some- 

 thing to do with flowers; and though the price of plants is 

 moderate when compared with that in England, yet the deal- 

 ers in flowers and plants in Ghent are innumerable ; and 

 how it can answer to a Belgic gardener to cultivate plants for 

 sale, is more than I can imagine." 



"The three first-rate commercial gardeners in Ghent, are Messieurs 

 Verleeuwen, Van Geert, and VerschafFclt: the first of whom (Verleeu- 

 wen) is celebrated for his choice collection of plants, obtained chiefly 

 from England; for his obliging manners; and for a liberality in his deal- 



