BRUGES. 125 



chen use, and the scarlet flower makes an ornamental va- 

 riety. Scorzonera (Soorzonera Hispanica) is much culti- 

 vated. Brussels sprouts * form a common crop; and a few 

 savoys are planted. Leeks (Allium porrum) are planted 

 with a spade or dibble which at one thrust makes holes for 

 receiving two plants. 



Here we observed small beds of the different culinary 

 plants left for seed ; such as carrot, white beet, onion, en- 

 dive, and lettuce. Every person possessed of a garden, we 

 find, saves his own seeds ; and the business of a seedsman 

 is in this country scarcely known, or at least he deals chiefly 

 in agricultural seeds. Different kinds of seedling lettuces 

 are allowed to grow intermixed, and of course the va- 

 rieties cannot continue genuine or pure for any considerable 

 length of time. 



Paintings, <$fc. 



After breakfasting for the first time on cafe au hit, we 

 visited the English Convent, of which Madame More is 

 Abbess, — the Academy of Painting, — and the Church of 

 Notre Dame. In all of these places are some paintings by 

 Rubens, Van Oost, and other masters ; a few of the best 

 of which had been removed by Buonaparte, and were re- 

 turned from Paris in August 1815, in consequence of the 

 " great moral lesson" taught by the Duke of Welling- 

 ton. 



Villa ofM. Bertmnd. 

 We next bent our steps to the country seat of M. 

 Bertrand, a merchant of Bruges, who, we were told, pos- 



* Brussels sprouts and open kale, with savoys and cabbages, cauliflower, 

 and broccoli, are arranged by botanists as varieties of the Brassica oleracea, 

 already mentioned as a native of Dover cliff's. Of several of these, there are 

 many suft-varieties, distinguished by gardeners and seedsmen. 



