Foreign Notices. — Germany. 85 



at Newshoncberg, where the Society's house is, and with which I was highly 

 gratified. The Society's Garden comprises about twelve acres, and is 

 dedicated solely to the use of the young students of gardening : it is superin- 

 tended by the Director Otto, and under the sub-direction of a foreman. 

 The number of young men taken every year is twelve, eleven of whom pay 

 about 10/. premium, for which sum they are boarded and lodged in the 

 Garden House. _ One of the twelve is an orphan, who through the good- 

 ness of the Society is taken gratis : there are masters who attend these 

 students three times a week, for their instruction in Latin, mathematics, and 

 drawing; they attend also botanical lectures read by Professor Schiech- 

 tendal, who is keeper of the Willdenow Herbarium. Six of these stu- 

 dents are in the Botanic Garden one week, and in the Society's Garden 

 the other. After having attended these studies and both gardens for 

 twelvemonths, they are then sent to the Royal Forcing Gardens, Potsdam, 

 which are on a very magnificent scale, and there they remain the other two 

 years under the care of the Director Lenne\ After the expiration of this 

 term, and having conducted themselves properly in the garden, they are 

 allowed to travel for three years, through Germany, and France, for their 

 improvement ; but previous to their leaving the garden they are examined, 

 and also on their return ; and according to their merits they are rewarded 

 with places. 



This part of the Prussian Gardening Society's plan will, I am sure, be 

 highly gratifying to you, who attach so much importance to the education 

 of gardeners : in this respect, the London Horticultural Society appears 

 to me much inferior to that of Prussia. 



The Botanic Garden of Berlin has a better collection of plants than any 

 other on the continent, notwithstanding the severe climate which they 

 have to contend with. These plants are in excellent order. I may say I 

 never was so astonished as when I beheld in their temporary green-house 

 Eucalyptus, Acacia, Melaleuca, Leptospermum, &c. forty feet high, flower- 

 ing and fruiting abundantly. I was told they are the finest specimens of 

 these genera in Europe. The palm-house has a circular roof, and the plants 

 appear to thrive amazingly. The construction of the other houses is 

 similar to that of our green-houses. 



The Forcing Gardens at Potsdam are under the superintendence of Mr. 

 Sello : these gardens were formed by Frederick the Great, and contain 

 more glass than I ever saw at any place, either at home or abroad. The 

 orangery is built in the old style, and is eight hundred feet long, filled with 

 good plants. 



The Garden of the Marble Palace is on a smaller scale, and chiefly bo- 

 tanical and ornamental. I next visited the Pfauen-insel, (Island of Pea- 

 cocks,) which is a delightful spot ; the Hofgartner, (court gardener,) Mr. 

 Fintelmann, is famous for the cultivation of Dahlias, (Georgina is their 

 generic name for this plant) : he informed me that he had upwards of three 

 hundred sorts of double ones. He excels also in the forcing of cherries, and 

 has written on both subjects in the Prussian Gardening Transactions. The 

 pleasure grounds of the palace of Charlottenburg, and various other gar- 

 dens and parks, I found as described in your Encyclopaedia. In my next, 

 I shall give you some account of the gardens of Holland. 



I am, dear Sir, &c. 



J. Taylor. 



Hortus Berlinensis. In our Review of the state of Botany in Prussia, we 

 stated inadvertently, that the last edition of this work contained_5791 

 species j it should have been 1708 genera, and 10299 species. The mistake 

 arose from the plan of the Berlin Hortus, in which the second part is 

 numbered independently of the first, and the second part contains 5791 



