Horticultural Tour in the Netherlands. 397 



It appears, the farmers here, partly owing to two or three 

 wet seasons, and a failure of crops, are badly off; being be- 

 hind in rent, and, though not tithed or rated, being heavily 

 taxed by the government and priests. I noticed a curious 

 anomaly, in the farmer's wife wearing heavy gold cheek plates 

 to her cap, though the children were in the coarsest clothes, 

 with sabots, and no stockings. 



After a pleasant voyage from Bruges on a fine canal, I 

 reached Ghent, and paid an immediate visit to Van Cassel, 

 the father of the Ghent nurserymen : I think he said he was 

 ninety. He is still devoted to plants, and regularly takes in 

 a few of the English periodical botanical works : he is a good 

 Latinist and botanist, and has so much enthusiasm for plants, 

 that I was delighted with him : he has a most valuable botani- 

 cal and general library. Among many curiosities, he showed 

 me a rare edition of the Bible (I think in French), in 8 vols, 

 folio, with the most curious illustrations. His nursery con- 

 sisted of but one acre, chiefly planted with roses and azaleas, 

 the latter growing in the most superb style. His newest 

 varieties of these were Azalea lacticolor, A. mimica, A. pul- 

 cherrima, and A. spuria amabilis, for which he asked the 

 moderate price of from twenty to forty francs each ! 



From this I visited VerschafFelts's nursery, Rue Caverne, 

 where I found the largest stock of Cactus speciosissima I 

 ever saw ; the camellias were neatly arranged by the sides of 

 the walks, and numbers were inarched ; as were also the 

 azaleas. M. Verschaffelts particularly recommended Camelh'a 

 marmorata, and C. colorata,'which he said were "tres-grandes: " 

 the grave importance with which he eulogised these camellias, 

 the first of which he priced at fifty francs, and the other he 

 said was so rare that it was not for sale, and his enthusiasm, 

 made him with me a very amusing personage. 



At M. Hellebuyck's nursery, I was much gratified with 

 his magnificent plants of hybrid azaleas, generally inarched 

 (called here " plaque"). They seem to grow from seed with 

 as much facility as the common pansy with us, coming up 

 spontaneously in the borders. His camellias were in a reed 

 enclosure, so neatly arranged in rows, and inarched in such a 

 business-like and ingenious manner, all in the open air, that, 

 so far from desiring it to be a hidden operation, as it generally 

 is with us, they formed a very gratifying spectacle ; the stages 

 on which the pots with the stocks were placed were very 

 cleverly arranged, and showed that extreme attention to 

 minutiae which we are so apt to forget. 



At Van Damme's, the lion was Magnolz'a maxima, which 

 seemed a variety of M. acuminata, with rather a broad leaf. 



