Foreign Notices : — Belgium. 325 



Ai Brussels, a private gentleman, M. Vander Maelen, has two splendid 

 stoves, with green-house, &c., richly stocked with choice plants (the plants of 

 which you have, no doubt, seen), particularly palms and Orchidacege. They 

 are attached and parallel to one side of his dwelling-house ; and you enter 

 from the large stove into a museum of natural history, containing collections 

 of reptiles, corals, and insects; some beautiful specimens of butterflies, brought 

 by his collector from Brazil ; and also shells, a collection of minerals, fossils, 

 &c., in beautiful order. In an adjoining room is a geographical library, with 

 globe, maps, &c. ; and in this room is kept a book for entering the names of 

 all visitors. M. Vander Maelen showed us every thing himself with the greatest 

 kindness. He had two artists taking drawings of two species of Stanhopea, 

 which were then in flower in his large stove. His gardener is an intelligent 

 young man ; and, at the request of M. Vander Maelen, went to show us the 

 botanic garden and other collections in the vicinity of Brussels. M. Vander 

 Maelen's garden is first rate ; his stoves are splendid, and he is enthusiastically 

 attached to natural history. He is a correspondent of Mrs. Marryatt, Wim- 

 bledon ; but is not acquainted with any of our leading men in botany and 

 other branches of natural historj'. You will be delighted to visit his place, 

 which is close to Brussels, a la Porte de Flandres. M. Vander Maelen had 

 a collector two years in Brazil ; and he showed me the young man whom he 

 sent there, and who was working in one of his stoves. His green-house plants 

 are also very fine. 



M. Rynders, a'private gentleman (St. Josse, Tennoode), has a fine collection 

 of stove and green-house plants, and in most beautiful order ; a splendid collec- 

 tion of camellias (more healthy handsome plants we have not seen); a very 

 select collection of green-house plaHts, in the very best health and vigour ; as 

 Telopea, Enkianthus, Oxylobium, Daviesia, Banksia, Dryandr«, E'pacris, &c. 

 BanksiV? Browni was 8 ft. high, and most of the new species were very fine. 

 His collection of Orchidacese, which fills a neat small stove, is surpassed by 

 very few private collections in England; and is decidedly far superior to 

 many collections we could name that are considered first-rate in this country. 

 The appearance of this collection at once shows M. Rynders's gardener to be 

 an excellent cultivator ; and M. Rynders spares no money to accommodate 

 his plants. Although his houses are not so large as many others, they are 

 well adapted to the successful cultivation of good plants ; an object often lost 

 sight of by many in erecting hot-houses. M. Rynders is a very free and 

 aftable gentleman, and is much pleased by a visit from any one who under- 

 stands his favourite study and amusement. 



Baron Van Voider, near Brussels, has a good garden, which I did not see.J 



Botanic Garde?i, Brussels. In the large and splendid stove conservatory, 

 which, with the adjoining house, forms a range of glass superior in effect to 

 anything we have ever seen, and which, from the Boulevards, is particularly 

 grand and imposing, there is an extensive collection of stove plants : the 

 most remarkable to us are the following : — Gomiitus saccharifer, 50 ft. 

 high; Caryota ijrens, 46ft. high, stem lift, diameter, 15 ft. to the first frond, 

 a very noble plant ; E^\sA,e sylvestris, large and handsome ; Carica Papdya, 

 40 ft. high, in flower ; Cecropia peltata, 25 ft. high ; and Bambiisa fiirundinacea, 

 which had grown .36 ft. in less than three months. The green-house and 

 stoves generally are filled with plants now considered in England as of little 

 value; and the want of funds is, no doubt, the cause of much that requires 

 reformation in this fine place. The water to the houses is pumped from a 

 pond at the bottom of the garden by a steam-engine, for which there is a fine 

 engine-house erected; and we saw the engine at work. The grounds require 

 considerable alterations to make them look suitable to this intended fine 

 garden. 



We had not time to see the king's collection at Lacken ; and, when we tell 

 you that we arrived in the morning, and left at four o'clock in the afternoon, 

 you will excuse the dryness of the above remarks. We again passed through 

 Brussels returning from Louvain, but had not time to see any gardens. 



Vol. XII. — No. . 5. b b 



