BRUGES. 31 



mish, so that it was difficult to communicate with him. The 

 garden is surrounded with high walls, the better aspects of 

 which are clothed with vines. But though the plants are 

 old and strong, they do not appear to be productive ; they, 

 bore pretty evident marks of being injudiciously pruned ; 

 and this, at any rate, has been an unpropitious season. We 

 found some trees of the orange-bergamot pear as standards, 

 and others trained to the wall. Pears which the gardener 

 called the Casserine and Callebasse were much praised by 

 him, as well as Longue queue de Louvain, which last seenu 

 ed to us to be one of the Blanquettes, its wood resembling 

 that of our English jargonelle. Our jargonelle, it will be 

 remembered, is the Epargne, or Grosse Cuisse-madame of 

 the Continent. The Passe-colmart was here in great per- 

 fection : this variety, we believe, originated in this part o{ 

 Flanders, and has only of late years become known to the 

 Parisian nurserymen. It is a late pear, but the fruit was 

 already of a large size. It is fit for the table in the months 

 of December and January, and bears a high character. A 

 pear to which the gardener gave the name of Cheneau re- 

 ceived also a high character ; the fruit somewhat resembled 

 our Gansefs bergamot. In this garden, we for the first 

 time saw an Almond-tree planted as a standard ; but it did 

 not, this unfavourable season, shew any fruit. Besides the 

 usual culinary crops, the garden contained large beds of 

 some plants which are not commonly cultivated at home. 

 One was Millet (Panicum miliaceum*), which is here call- 

 ed hirz, and is cultivated for the sake of the seeds, of which 

 puddings are made. The other was Small Fennel-flower 

 (Nigella sativa), here called nardus-madt, which, as the 



* This, we believe, was a variety called African Millet, which requires 

 less care in cultivation than the common kind, and the seeds of which are 

 less apt to be devoured by small birds, while ripening. 



