GHENT. iS 



shelter : these deserve mention, on account of their unusual 

 size, being from eight to ten feet high. 



Gardeners may perhaps be excused for taking notice of 

 minutiae, if they be connected with horticultural arrange- 

 ments. — In some divisions of this garden the scientific 

 name of the plant is painted on a tally, the head of which 

 is of tinned iron, and the stalk of wood : in other places, 

 the tallies consist merely of triangular pieces of roof-slate, 

 on which is cut or deeply scratched, in Roman numerals, 

 the number of the plant in the garden catalogue. — The 

 usual material used for tying up the plants here, consists 

 of the stalks of Juncus efFusus ; great quantities of which 

 were at this time lying in the green-house, being gathered 

 at this season when in vigour, and quickly dried, so as to 

 preserve the tenacity of the fibres. They answer the pur- 

 pose very well, and perhaps have a less formal appearance 

 than strands of bass-matting. 



From M. Mussche, the principal gardener, we procured 

 a printed catalogue of the plants cultivated in the gar- 

 den *. For what reason we could not divine, M. Mussche 

 seemed disinclined to give us information as to any fine 

 private gardens in the environs of Ghent. On inquiring 

 for the best example of a public nursery and a sale kitchen- 

 garden near to town, we were recommended by him to visit 

 the pepiniere of M. Nicholas De Cock in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Vieux Bourg, and the marais of M. Smedt at 

 the end of the Rue des Meuniers. 



De Coctfs Nurseries. 

 In the afternoon, accordingly, we visited the gardens 



* Hortus Gandavensis, ou Tableau general de toutes les Plantes exoti- 

 ques et indigenes, cultivees dans lc Jardin Botanique de la ville de Ganri ; 

 p.ir J. H. Mussche, jardinier en crcf, 1817- 



