GHENT. 67 



foliage dashed with white or yellow, seem to be much in re- 

 quest in this part of the Continent. M. Spae possesses the 

 limetree, (Tilia Europgea), and the spindle-tree (Euonymus 

 Europaeus), both with leaves very prettily variegated. 

 At the entrance to the garden is situated an uncommonly 

 large vine, the stem, a little above the ground, measuring 

 no less than 1 foot 9 inches in circumference. We were 

 assured that it is more than a hundred years old, and, 

 from its appearance, we could easily believe that it may 

 have seen even two centuries. 



M. De Wulf. 

 Towards evening, Mr Macdonald and I paid a visit to 

 M. De Wulf, the keeper of the principal pensionnat, or 

 boarding-school for young gentlemen, at Ghent. Among 

 his boarders are several English youths, belonging chiefly 

 to Roman Catholic families in the west of England. M. De 

 Wulf employs his hours of relaxation in horticultural pur- 

 suits. He has long cultivated various kinds of fruit-trees 

 and of American shrubs, and has not been inattentive to 

 the raising of new or seedling varieties of both. Finding 

 the boundaries of his original garden too limited for such 

 experiments, he appropriated another to this purpose. His 

 stock of fruit-trees and of shrubs still increasing, he filled a 

 third and a fourth inclosure with them. He now, there- 

 fore, possesses four different gardens; and this garden- 

 ing concern, which was at first undertaken as matter of 

 amusement, having thus increased in magnitude and ex- 

 pence, he has, of late years, contrived to make it maintain 

 itself, by disposing of a part of the superfluous produce. 

 He told us, that his stock at present consists of at least 

 30,000 young fruit-trees ; and he has, besides, a large col- 

 lection of ornamental shrubs, chiefly American. We or- 



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