634 Summary View of the Progress of Gardening^ 



roots, and the quantity of melons, grapes, and other fruit grown 

 in that country, and sent annually to the London and Brighton 

 markets, may, we conclude, be considered as prospering in a 

 gardening point of view. The celebrated Botanic Garden at 

 Leyden is still carefully kept up, as appears by Professor Rein- 

 wardt's letter, in a future page. 



In Belgium, we understand, few horticultural improvements 

 are going forward; and we regret much to learn that the Botani- 

 cal and Horticultural Garden at Brussels is still suffering from 

 want of funds. Gardening seems rather in a more prosperous 

 state in the neighbourhood of Ghent, where, our correspondent 

 Mr. Maddison informs us, a hall for horticultural exhibitions 

 has been erected, A valuable communication from Mr. Mad- 

 dison, on this subject, will appear in our succeeding Volume. 



Germany. — A number of plants, new to the gardens of Vi- 

 enna, have been sent thither from the Swan River, and from the 

 south coast of New Holland, by Baron Hligel, just returned 

 from a scientific voyage to the East Indies and New Holland ; 

 and Prince Metternich's gardener has, also, introduced several 

 new species, which he carried with him from England. (See 

 Otto's Garten-Zeitung, vol. iv. p. 199.) The grand centre of 

 landscape-gardening and architectural improvements, in Ger- 

 many, continues to be Munich, where the English garden has 

 recently undergone various changes, and an Ionic temple has 

 been raised on the summit of an artificial mount, and finished 

 interiorly with polychromic, or many-coloured, paintings. This 

 new and singular mode of interior finishing is at present en- 

 gaging the attention of architects throughout Europe. It seems 

 a revival of an art practised by the ancient Greeks on and within 

 their temples, and continued through the dark ages, by painting 

 the ceilings of cathedrals and churches with blue, and varying 

 the surface with golden stars, the sun, moon, and other figures, 

 and also by the stained glass of church windows, and the illu- 

 minated inissals of the church. A detailed account of the pro- 

 cess will be found in the Foreign Quarterly Review for October, 

 1836; in the Transactions of the Institution of British Arphitects, 

 vol. i. ; and in the Architectural Magazirie, vol. iv. A Splendid 

 new country house has been built by W. Von Marejiholtz, at 

 Wilhelmsburg, near Brunswick (see Architectural Magazi?ie, 

 vol. iii.) ; but we have heard nothing respecting its gardens. 



The botanical garden at Berlin is acknowledged to be the 

 first in Germany. A correspondent (apparently G. Bentham, 

 Esq., secretary to the London Horticultural Society) of the 

 Co7npanion to the Botanical Magazine, writing, in August last, 

 says of this garden, that it is, he believes, "still the most im- 

 portant in Germany in the number of species, trees excepted, 

 in which respect the Vienna garden excels." " Californian plants," 



