Constantinople, who brouglit home with him from 

 his embassy, the Lihic, one of the most beautiful of 

 our flowering shrubs. Of late years it has even be- 

 come common to designate the most curious and 

 beautiful sorts of non-descript plants, as they are 

 discovered, by the name of the discoverer or that of 

 some other person of high scientific fame. Thus the 

 laurel of our woods has obtained its scientific name of 

 Kalmia, from the Swedish naturalist, Kalm ; while 

 his countryman, Dahl, has furnished one to the plant, 

 whose brilliant and various flowers, though so re- 

 cently naturalized among us, already adorn all our 

 gardens, and contribute so much to the beauty of 

 your exhibitions. 



In the culture of flowers, the Dutch have per- 

 haps excelled all other nations. Their taste is, how- 

 ever, somewhat limited in its objects, and confines 

 itself almost exclusively to the tulip, the rose, and 

 the hyacinth. The rage for tulips, that prevailed at 

 one time in that country, and the extravagant height 

 to which the conventional value of particular varieties 

 was carried, are well known. A pressure in the tulip 

 market was then nearly as serious a thing in Holland 

 as a pressure in the money market is in this country 

 at the present day. Although the taste for flowers 

 no longer exists to the same degree as it once did 

 in Holland, that country is still tin; place where they 

 are most extensively cultivated, and whence they are 

 sent as articles of merchandize to all parts of the 

 world. The principal tulip and hyacinth gardens are at 

 Haarlem. The largest that I saw there contained not 

 less than three or four acres of ground, and was really 



