3 GO Notes made during a Professional Tour 



any part of Belgium, they are cultivated with success. In Bel- 

 gium, the heaths are generally placed on the front platform of 

 the plant-houses, the front sashes of which being never made to 

 open, no free circulation of air can reach the plants : they are 

 drawn up slender, the damp gets hold of them, and they soon 

 die. If any of the Belgic admirers of .Erica would construct a 

 small house or pit in a dry airy situation, and contrive the sashes 

 in such a manner as that they might be entirely removed in 

 mild weather during winter, and bestow the following treatment 

 on the plants, I have not the least doubt that they would 

 succeed to their utmost wishes. When the weather is frosty, 

 I would cover the house well with mats or straw, instead of using 

 fire heat, as the latter is well known to be very injurious to this 

 tribe of plants ; and I would shade it well in summer, when the 

 weather is hot, and the sun strong in the middle of the day ; 

 always admitting plenty of air, by tilting up the sashes behind, 

 and at night removing the sashes entirely, so that the plants 

 might have the benefit of the dews. 



The finest private garden near Ghent is that of M. Meche- 

 lynck, an opulent merchant, and a most enthusiastic lover and 

 promoter of gardening. He has an excellent collection of stove 

 and green-house plants, camellias, &c. ; among the former he 

 has some splendid specimens of rare plants, which are in an 

 excellent state of keeping. The young man who acts as gardener, 

 seems as enthusiastic as his master, and the management of the 

 place does him great credit. M. Verplancke has also a beautiful 

 garden; but the manner in which it is laid out, and the want of 

 evergreens, give it a cold and meagre appearance, compared with 

 places of the same sort in England. There is here one of the most 

 neatly constructed green-houses of iron I have ever seen ; but the 

 collection of plants in it is not good : it is a great pity to go to 

 so much expense in fitting up a house, and then not to fill it 

 with good plants ; the one corresponds so badly with the other. 

 I would much rather have seen it the other way. 



Mr. Maddison, at Wondelgem, a few miles from Ghent, has 

 one of the neatest and best-constructed geranium-houses any- 

 where to be found : it is span-roofed, and, by a very simple 

 process, the stage can be raised to within a few inches of the 

 glass ; a thing very requisite in damp winters like the last. Mr. 

 Maddison is by far the best grower of geraniums in Belgium ; 

 all the others keeping them so close, that they are drawn up 

 quite slender, and lose their bottom leaves, which renders the 

 plants unsightly. I found Mr. Maddison very intelligent and 

 obliging, and willing to render me every assistance which lay in 

 his power. M. A. van de Woestyne-d'Hane, near the last- 

 mentioned place, has a good garden, with several forcing-pits 

 after the Dutch fashion. Here there were some good crops of 



