240 Botanic Garden of Madrid. 



and summer are attracted thither through pleasure or 

 curiosity. 



All round the part of* the garden which we have just been 

 describing there is a walk, twenty-five feet broad, most of 

 which, in summer, is shaded by the trees planted along 

 the borders ; the whole of the upper plot is embowered 

 by a beautiful trellis, supported with iron arches, and 

 formed by about twenty different varieties of vines. At 

 the western extremity of this plot there is a green-house, 

 facing the south, which contains about 4500 flower- 

 pots. It is the best, or at least in better condition than the 

 rest, in that establishment. A sloping bank, planted with 

 resinous trees, among which there is the cedar of Lebanon, 

 separates it to the south from the other part of the garden, 

 of which we shall presently treat ; and between the trellis- 

 work and the wall that separates it from the Buen-Retiro, to 

 the east, rises in the centre a building, in which there is a hall 

 for delivering lectures, a seed-room, and another apartment, 

 similar to the latter, which was formerly used as a library. 

 On the left there is a very handsome basin, constructed in 

 1 802, and another much older and half ruined, as well as one 

 of the draw-wells above mentioned ; and on the right another 

 old basin, also in very bad condition, and a plot in which 

 they prepare the different soils. 



Near the principal gate, at the western extremity of the 

 garden, is the other draw-well, and a house which was for- 

 merly inhabited by the chief gardener, and which now con- 

 tains all the implements belonging to the botanical expedition 

 of Santa Fe de Bogota. 



In 1802, a stove was constructed for the plants of 

 tropical countries ; but during the war of independence 

 it was so much neglected, that, in 1814, it was useless, 

 and has never since been repaired. In the same year, 

 1802, one of the two green-houses situated at the eastern 

 extremity, and facing the west, was fitted up as a library 

 and herbarium ; but both this building and its corresponding 

 one were some years ago declared by the architect in a 

 ruinous condition, and, notwithstanding the repeated appli- 

 cations to government for their re-construction, they continue 

 threatening to bury beneath their ruins every thing which they 

 contain. 



The part which we have hitherto described is what prin- 

 cipally constitutes the botanical garden of Madrid ; it is 

 much resorted to, and forms one of the most delightful spots of 

 the capital and its environs. Its broad and straight walks, into 



