252 Public Orangeries of Berlin, 



plants ; and in some parts of the floor, one handsome tree in 

 the middle is surrounded by several smaller trees and plants, 

 so as to form a mass or clumps of verdure and flovi^ers, such 

 as we see in pleasure-grounds. 



The flowers which are generally found in these winter gar- 

 dens throughout the winter are hyacinths, narcissuses, ranuncu- 

 luses, tulips, crocuses, roses, heaths, camellias, acacias, epacrises, 

 correas, &c. There are also various climbers, curious or showy 

 stove-plants, pine-apples in fruit, cactuses, &c., and some- 

 times even fruit trees, the latter both in flower and in fruit. 

 The proprietors of the gardens have generally small forcing 

 stoves, for the purpose of bringing forward and keeping up 

 their supplies. 



It is almost needless to say that in these gardens or 

 orangeries there are plenty of seats, and small movable 

 tables, and generally music, a reciter of poetry, a reader, a 

 lecturer, or some other person or party to supply vocal or in- 

 tellectual entertainment ; short plays have even been acted in 

 them on the Sundays. In the evening the whole is illumi- 

 nated, and on certain days of the week the music and illumi- 

 nations are on a grander scale. In some of these orangeries, 

 also, there are separate saloons with billiards, for ladies who 

 object to the smoke of tobacco, for card-playing, and for 

 select parties. 



If you enter these gardens in the morning part of the day 

 during the winter season, you will find old gentlemen with 

 spectacles reading the newspapers, taking chocolate, and 

 talkino- politics; after three o'clock, you see ladies and gentle- 

 men, and people of every description, sitting among the trees, 

 talking or reading, and smoking, and with punch, grog, 

 coffee, beer, and wine before them. In the saloon you will 

 see those gentlemen and ladies who cannot bear tobacco ; and 

 I ought to mention that in some orangeries smoking tobacco 

 is not allowed, and in others it is only permitted till a certain 

 time in the day. 



When the audience leaves the theatre in the evening, you 

 will find in M. Faust's garden, a great number of well- 

 dressed people of both sexes, who look in there before they 

 go home, to see the beauty of vegetation when brilliantly il- 

 luminated by artificial light, and to talk of the play, and the 

 players. 



I saw no garden in England, Scotland, or Ireland, that 1 

 could compare to these winter gardens; they appear to me 

 very suitable to a capital town, though I do not think they 

 would be much frequented by the people of London, who 

 have not the same taste, nor the same leisure, for these kinds 

 of amusements that the Berlin people have. 



