Review of Loudon'' s Gardener''s Magazine. 387 



ings which ought to recoinnieiid him to all amateurs. Every one here, 

 as I before said, is a gardeuer or amateur; so that it would be impossible 

 to enumerate all the Glunit gardeners by name: but those English gar- 

 deners who are desirous of purchasing plants here, ought themselves to 

 come over. Messrs. Knight, Garvie and Tate have already paid this 

 country a visit. The latter sold a ((uantity of his Azalea Danielsii; which, 

 when once it begins to grow, will thrive sur{)risingly in tiie fine kind of 

 vegetable mould we have in this country; though, 1 think, it will be too 

 delicate to stand our winters in the ojien air. The sunnners in Belgium 

 are, for the most part, tine and dry; and the autunnis beautifully serene, 

 till Novendjcr. The winters are, however, sharp, dry, clear, and cut- 

 ting; but healthy for those not subject to pulmonary complaints. The 

 springs are disagreeable, having cold winds with hot sun. In the winter, 

 but very little snow falls. This winter (1864), snow fell twice; but never 

 remained more than three hours at a time on the ground. On the other 

 hand, on Dec. 29, 1829, at ten o'clock at night, Fahrenheit's thermom- 

 eter, in a northern aspect, fell to 24'^ below the freezing point." 



The IlorticuUeur Beige, a work from which the excellent 

 article at page 209 of our Magazine was first extracted, seems 

 not to be in a very prosperous condition. It was begun by 

 M. Van Houtte, who has since been engaged as collector of 

 rare plants in South America, and was conducted with great 

 ability; his successors seem not to have the same Zealand 

 enthvisiasm. Its want of punctuality, Mr. Maddison says, 

 must ultimately prove its ruin; and states, as an instance, 

 that " a number bearing date Jan. 1835, will, perhaps, not 

 appear until April, 1835." 



" A great drawback" continues the writer, "to the welfare and pros- 

 perity of the Flemish peasantry, is, the custom which the government 

 has of lodging, from time to time, the military upon them, instead of 

 building a cheap kind of barracks for the soldiers. In the winter months, 

 this hardship is not so heavy as in the summer; but, during the busy time 

 of the year (for example, in spring and harvest), when there is a great 

 deal of out-door work to do, the burden is felt most severely; and the 

 Belgic peasant is to be really pitied." 



The Ghent green-houses are often injured by the hail and 

 frost; and large squares of glass being generally used, after 

 a severe winter they have the appearance of a chess-board. 

 The Belgian rarely puts in a whole square where one is bro- 

 ken, but patches it up with pieces; thus destroying all neat- 

 ness and elegance in his plant-structures. The using of 

 large glass is a false economy to save carpenter's work. These 

 are things too little attended to in our own practice of gar- 

 dening, but which we hope will be carefully guarded against. 



Article III, contains some " suggestions for a society for 

 promoting the improvement of the public taste in architec- 

 tural and rural scenery," called out by a notice which some 

 time since appeared in various papers, of the formation of an 

 Ornamental Tree Society in this vicinity. The article is very 

 good, and the remarks by the conductor, are full of sound 

 sense and just criticism. The following, though written for 

 the reflection of English gentlemen of science and taste, will 



