M HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



stalk : the summer weather seems to be here so uniformly 

 mild and genial, that the plants meet with no check in 

 their growth, but swell uniformly and uninterruptedly : 

 with us they are often checked, by cold and even frosty 

 nights ; and one striking effect of such checks (as remark- 

 ed by Mr Macdonald) is to force the plants prematurely 

 into a flowering state. 



Besides raising vegetables for the market, M. Smedt 

 applies himself to the production of several kinds of garden 

 seeds. We observed beds and rows of Lettuce, Onion, 

 and Purslane. The lettuce, we found, can here be sown 

 in the spring, and will yet perfect its seed the same year. 

 The Berlin, the white and the brown Dutch lettuce were 

 here ripening their seeds close by each other ; it seems no- 

 wise surprising, therefore, that mixtures should take place, 

 and endless hybrid sub-varieties be produced. The con- 

 fusion of sorts, not only in the case of lettuce, but of en- 

 dive, beet, onion and carrot, is, we believe, greatly increas- 

 ed from this circumstance, — that agents for seedsmen often 

 travel through Flanders and Holland, and pick up small 

 parcels of these seeds from great numbers of different mar- 

 ket-gardeners and others, many of whom pay little or no 

 attention to the separation or discrimination of varieties. 



A wide-spreading vine, of the Frankenthal variety, 

 completely covers the roof of a large cow-house, on which 

 it is horizontally trained. The stem rises eight feet, be- 

 fore branching; and at three feet from the ground, it 

 measures 10,} inches in circumference. This fine plant is 

 now unfortunately neglected, and is fast going to decay. 



(Ihcnt Exhibition . 



The afternoon of this day we dedicated to an inspection 

 of the. exhibition of paintings by living Flemish artists, 



