GHENT. 39 



(Populus dilatata) rising to double the height immediately 

 behind the willow. In front of this monument is an exten- 

 sive collection of perennial herbaceous plants, occupying 

 nearly a fourth part of the garden, and arranged according 

 to the method of Linnaeus, with large tallies indicating the 

 classes and orders, and smaller .ones telling the generic 

 names. This department of the garden is, by way of 

 eminence, termed VEcole. At this season of the year, 

 the alleys which divide this " school" into beds are 

 lined with rows of green-house and dry-stove plants; 

 and the broad walk leading to the monument is decorat- 

 ed on both sides with rows of orange and pomegranate 

 trees, and others generally kept in tubs or cases. All of 

 these are closely pruned, so as to form round bushy heads. 

 If the orange- trees produce a few flowers, they are picked 

 off as fast as they appear : we saw, lying in the green- 

 house, bushels of the leaves and twigs of these orange-trees, 

 the result of a severe pruning which they had just suffered, 

 and we were told that they were kept for the use of apo- 

 thecaries. 



A very fine specimen of the Mastic-tree (Pistacia Len- 

 tiscus, mas?) deserves attention. It is nearly 12 feet 

 high from the walk, with a stem 15 inches in circumfe- 

 rence. The head is large and bushy. The case bears an 

 inscription, intimating that this plant has been dedicated 

 by the managers to the memory of M. Van Haut, a young 

 and promising botanist who died in 1805, and who be- 

 queathed all his means and estate to the garden. In the 

 same way, a specimen of Borassus flabelliformis, from Up- 

 per Egypt, and one of the rarest of the palm-tribe, is dedi- 

 cated to the memory of M. Coppens, the first lecturer on 

 botany here, and' the planner of the garden. 



Statues of Ceres and Flora, and busts of some of the 

 principal early botanists of the Low Countries, are scatter 



