274' Observations oti the Garde?ii?ig of Belgium, 



same taste, it would not only promote a general love for horti- 

 culture, but be the means of keeping them, in a great measure, 

 out of the alehouses. 



M. Boddaert (of Tronchiennes, a village near Ghent) is another 

 instance of a real taste for flowers. This gentleman is a respect- 

 able farmer, who finds leisure from his daily occupation to look 

 after two neat green-houses : one containing camellias, and the 

 other geraniums. M. Boddaert has had no education in garden- 

 ing, and owes all he knows on the subject to a natural taste for 

 it, and to what he has picked up from the gardeners in the 

 environs, aided by an attentive perusal o^ the Bo7i Jardinier. For 

 the successful multiplication of the camellia, I believe M. Bod- 

 daert to be unequalled. 



The gardener of M. van der Woestyne d'Hane is very suc- 

 cessful in the cultivation and forcing of early vegetables; and he 

 also cultivates exceedingly well a fine collection of orange trees, 

 which certainly do him great credit. 



Besides the above-named gentlemen, there are numbers of 

 others who have a taste, more or less, for flowers, and who take 

 great pleasure in exchanging their plants with those of their 

 neighbours: by which practice, a gentleman who has a fair col- 

 lection of plants is put to little expense in the purchase of new 

 ones ; as, having good plants of his own, he can always procure 

 others by exchange. 



I must not here omit mentioning the superb collection of M, 

 Reynders of Brussels, who excels as much in green-house plants 

 as M. Mechelynk does in stove plants ; and who, as far as I can 

 judge by observation, possesses the best gardener in this country. 

 His specimens of large camellias are truly magnificent ; as are 

 some of his specimens of New Holland plants. 



Sir Henry Oakes of Tournay is also a first-rate amateur; 

 and, and at the last exhibition there, gained two gold medals for 

 his plants : in fact, the exhibitions at Tournay would be nothing 

 without him. 



Ghent Horticultural Society. — I imagine the Ghent Horti- 

 cultural Society to be the parent of all the other societies in 

 Belgium, as it has now existed upwards of twenty-six years. I 

 know of no town where the florimania is so strong as in this : 

 persons of all trades and professions must have something to do 

 with flowers ; and, though the price of plants is moderate when 

 compared with that in England, yet the dealers in flowers and 

 plants in Ghent are innumerable : and how it can answer to a 

 Belgic gardener to cultivate plants for sale, is more than I can 

 imagine. 



There are two exhibitions annually (winter and summer), 

 which are always very fine ; but the prizes are not only ve)y 

 shabby, and but few in number, but, for the most part, can only 



