NOVEMBER 93 



who are in the act of ascending into heaven.' It is, 

 therefore, in ignorance that this German of the early 

 days of the seventeenth century surrounds the Almighty 

 with this almond-shaped glory instead of a glory round the 

 head. The book is called * Hortus Eystettensis,' and was 

 brought out in 1613 by Basil Besler, an apothecary. On 

 each side of the columns are two draped male figures 

 representing Solomon and Cyrus. The whole page is 

 coloured (highly rather than beautifully) by hand ; and the 

 large first volume must contain over three hundred pages, 

 with designs of all kinds of flowers and fruit beautifully 

 drawn and coloured. I believe the book with only out- 

 line representations of the flowers is not very uncommon, 

 but coloured copies are exceedingly rare. In fact, Herr 

 Baer told me he had never seen another. Whether the 

 colouring dates from the time of printing or not it is 

 difficult to say. The paper is beautiful, the whole in 

 excellent condition, and it is a treasure from a collector's 

 point of view. Binders were careless in those days, as 

 one sheet is bound upside down. The second volume is 

 not quite so thick, but the plates are of even greater 

 beauty. It contains a curious copyright, given by Louis 

 XIII., King of France and Navarre. The date of the 

 book being 1613, the young king was only twelve years 

 old when he granted this protection to his good servant 

 Basil Besler, who had been put to such great expense 

 in producing his book. 



November Wth. I find several of the Japanese 

 Maples so well worth growing and quite hardy here. 

 They make very little growth, and want dry, sunny, 

 protected places, where they suffer sometimes from 

 drought, but recover by the following year, and are 

 delightful plants. Golden Privet is a very pretty-growing 

 plant when young, out of doors or in pots. It has been 

 much used of late in London in window-boxes. I 



