through Belgium and Part of France. 361 



kidney beans, peas, carrots, &e. &c. There were also some 

 good specimens of old stove plants, and a very large orange- 

 house, well stocked with fine healthy trees. The kitchen-garden, 

 like most others in Belgium, is badly kept, there being nothing 

 like order or regularity observed, either in the cropping of it 

 or anything else. The park and pleasure-grounds had a very 

 naked appearance; not an evergreen of any description was to 

 be seen, and large tufts of long withered grass were scattered 

 all over the lawn, or rather over what was meant for such. M. 

 van der Meersch, an amateur cultivator, has a very neat small 

 place, containing two green-houses and one camellia-house; 

 and he has certainly the most select collection of plants I have 

 as yet met with. His houses are small, but the plants are in 

 very fine condition. His collections of pseonies and roses are 

 large, and he has many good herbaceous and alpine plants in 

 pots, which he preserves through the winter in a shed. He in- 

 formed me that he seldom loses a plant. I was much gratified 

 with the whole management of this villa, as every thing seemed 

 to be kept there in its proper place. When M. van der Meersch 

 turns his plants out in summer, instead of placing them on the 

 ground, as is generally the case, he has low stages erected in a 

 shady situation, on which he places the pots, and thus prevents 

 the worms from entering them. This is certainly a good plan, 

 where there are only a few plants ; but in extensive collections 

 the expense of erecting these stages would be so great, that few 

 nurserymen would be able to support it. There is here a bo- 

 tanic garden, which, from its appearance, must be a very ancient 

 establishment ; but at present it is in a very neglected state. 

 The plants are in a miserable state ; for the curator, being a 

 very old and infirm man, not able to attend to the management 

 himself, has intrusted it to men that know little, and often care 

 less, whether the place is in good keeping or not, and the con- 

 sequences before mentioned naturally follow. 



There are a great many market-gardens in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Ghent ; but these are generally in very bad 

 order, displaying neither regularity nor taste in keeping. The 

 vegetables produced are, however, excellent, and very cheap. 

 I particularly admired the fine quality of the Brussels sprouts, 

 which are here to be found in quantities scarcely credible. 



Having given you a short account of the different places I 

 had an opportunity of seeing, I shall now endeavour to describe 

 the Fete Jubilaire, which took place on the 15th of March, and 

 lasted during the five following days, in the great hall of the 

 university ; a place admirably adapted for the purpose, having 

 a large glass dome on the top, which admits plenty of light. 

 This hall being well heated by means of stoves, the plants 

 were preserved in fine condition during the whole time. The 



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