on Gardening and Rural Affairs. 



205 



during from Paris a great many New Holland plants, then rare in Germany. 

 The number of hot-houses was increased, and the hardy plants better 

 arranged in the Linnean manner. In 1811, Gmelin published Hort. Magni 

 Duels Badensis et Carlsruhanus,&c. which contained upwards of six thousand 

 species. In this year the archduke died, and Agave lurida, which had flowered 

 for the first time in Europe on his assuming the government sixty-five years 

 before, again flowered. Various alterations were made, hot-houses built, 

 an additional supply of water obtained, and fountains added ; and, in 1823 

 and 1824, a great many urns and statues. 



The garden is described with reference to the large sheet map of it which 

 is prefixed to the catalogue. The hot-houses are 

 mostly on the old Dutch plan, with steep glass 

 fronts and bonnet roofs. (Jig. 57.) The largest 

 resemble our old slated conservatories. (Jig. 58.) 

 The stoves are calculated to have the glass covered 

 by shutters let down 

 from the bonnet part of 

 the front (Jig. 57. a), 

 during the cold nights, 

 and on the approach of 



hail storms. The bonnet roof is not only a great 

 protection from the north, but powerfully reflects 

 the sun's rays down on the glass in winter and 

 spring, when they strike it at nearly a right 

 L- angle. 



Some remarks are given on the culture and propagation of the plants in 

 this garden, but they contain nothing which the English reader will not 

 find at greater length in Cushing's Exotic Gardener, which has been 

 translated into the German language ; in Sweet's excellent work, The 

 Botanical Cultivator, and in our Encyclopaedias of Gardening, and of 

 Plants. Considerable importance is very properly attached to the use of 

 soft or rain water, the placing of plants in circumstances as near as possible to 

 their native habitations in point of shade or moisture, and sheltering them 

 from the east wind. Besides peat soil for .Ericas and other plants, which the 

 Germans call " hair-rooted," a great deal of use is made of rotten wood, or 

 wood earth collected in baskets in the forests. American plants thrive 

 better in this soil mixed with common garden earth, than in peat alone. 

 Rhododendron, Azalea, K&lmia, &c, make shoots three feet long in a season. 

 Judicious directions are given for watering in gardens with the syringe or 

 engine, and keeping a moist atmosphere during the warm season. To de- 

 stroy the worms, a composition of soap, sulphur, and bruised fungi of any 

 sort, mixed, boiled, and allowed to stand till they ferment and smell power- 

 fully, is recommended as a specific. 



From a meteorological table, and some remarks on the geographical 

 situation and weather of Carlsruhe, it appears to be one of the most favour- 

 able places in Germany for the culture of plants. Though two degrees 

 farther north, and twice as high as London is above the sea, the average 

 temperature of the year is about the same; but the average summer tem- 

 perature is two degrees higher, and winter temperature two degrees lower. 

 The greatest cold of the winter of 1822-3 was four degrees more than in 

 London. The prevailing wind is from the west. In the course of twenty 

 years, only one hail storm has occurred, which broke about forty panes of 

 the hot-bed frames. The earliest season, from 1806 to 1824 inclusive, was 

 1822, in which year the first spring flowers were in bloom on the 8th of 

 February, apricots on the 25th of February, trees green on the 24th of 

 April, ripe cherries in the market on the 8th of May, corn ripe on the 20th 

 of June, and grapes on the 30th. 



