300 Historical and Descriptive Account 



with pedestals, or cut stems of old trees, on the top of each is placed a slab, or 

 table, on which the plants are placed. You will be apt to imagine that these 

 will have an unsightly appearance ; but they are almost entirely hidden by thei 

 plants growing in the borders; such as species of i^icus, Pothos, and JVum, 

 which mingle their tops with those of the dicksonias and polypodiums, which 

 hang down from the pots and tubs, and which, in turn, are crowned by the 

 leaves of the palms, the number of which, including the Cycadaceae, amounts 

 to about 80 species. Among the most rare and fine specimens may be reckoned 

 Thrinax elegans and argentea, Loudonia excelsa, Ela^Ms guineensis, Cocos 

 reflexa, Caryota lirens, Wallichia caryotoides, Acrocomia globosa, Sdgus 

 Rumphii, Diplothemium maritimum, Desmoncus orthacanthus, Latdnia 

 glaucophylla, &c. Encephartos Frederick Wilhelm?, and E. Altenstenw, two 

 species of a genus nearly allied to Zamia, have lately been imported from the 

 Cape, and named in honour of His Majesty the King of Prussia, who is a 

 great lover of palms, as may be seen from the fine collection on the Peacock 

 Isle (Pfauen Insel), and of one of his ministers. Among the other plants 

 of interest are, Furcroe^a longae^va, and Agave yiiccce^bWa. ; the latter of which 

 is now in flower. This house, though built at so late a date, cannot be con- 

 sidered as a proof of the improvement of garden architecture : the back wall 

 is arched over, and shades more than one half of the plant ; while the thick 

 columns and stout beams used for its support would give the whole a very 

 heavy and unsightly appearance, were not the ingenuity of the gardener brought 

 in to remedy the defect. The beams and rafters are now covered with different 

 kinds of Passiflora and ^ristolochia, the gay trusses of flowers produced by 

 which tend to lighten the fabric. All the houses are heated by means of flues, 

 with the exception of one small warm-water apparatus, which has been erected, 

 but which is almost too trifling to mention : the fuel is wood. Outside of this 

 house, advantage has been taken of the heat given out by the flues, which run 

 along inside close to the wall under the passage ; and frames have been sunk, in 

 which Cape and South American bulbs are cultivated. The soil is a mixture 

 of vegetable earth and sand. Brunsvigia Josephines, different sorts of Ama- 

 ryllis, Zephyranthes, 7'xia, Haemanthus, and Gladiolus, flower freely ; and 

 the tall sorts of Alstroemena are planted near the back of the bed, and trained 

 against the glass. I mention this, that others, possessing the same means, may 

 take advantage of them. I am well aware that many Cape and South Ame- 

 rican bulbs have been grown in England in the open air ; but, where a general 

 collection is planted out, as is the case here, the protection of a frame is 

 necessary. As many of these bulbs push in winter, the German gardeners 

 are very dexterous in protecting the frames and plant-stoves from frost ; the 

 frames are covered with boards, one laid over another like the tiles of a house, 

 and the stoves the same, with the exception that the boards are there laid 

 side by side, parallel with the sashes, the ends resting against a bar ; and the 

 upright fronts are protected by shutters pushed into grooves, or sockets. In 

 this manner a range of houses 200 ft. long can easily be covered and un- 

 covered in the space of ten minutes. For the shading of the houses in sum- 

 mer, the stems of the common reed (Z^hragmites communis) are used: they 

 are cut to suit the breadth of two sashes, and are fastened together at the 

 ends, till a kind of network, or web, is formed of the required length, which 

 is fastened to a roller, and let up and down by means of a rope and pulley. 

 The herbaceous plants, which occupy a considerable space, are arranged ac- 

 cording to the Linnaean system, and named with written wooden tallies ; but, 

 from the vast devastations committed by the ^cheta Gryllotalpa {Fabr., Gryl- 

 lotalpa vulgaris Latr.}, duphcates of the more tender and uncommon kinds 

 require to be kept in pots. 



This insect {fig. "iO.) is called in English the mole cricket ,• a word that is the 

 literal meaning of Gryllotalpa, from grylliis^ a cricket, and talpa, a mole ; a 

 description of which, with a figure, will be found in the Alag. of Nat. Hist., 

 vol. ii. p. 290. There is t Iso some account of this insect in a French work, 

 entitled Spectacle de la Nature, which has been translated into English in 

 7 volumes It appears about the beginning of summer, in myriads, and in 



