HAARLEM. 187 



Under the stratum of sand is found a bed of peat-moss, 

 generally about six feet in thickness : this peatmoss seems 

 to be composed rather of leaves and stems of reedy plants, 

 than of heath or the plants which accompany heath ; and 

 fragments of large branches, and even trunks of trees, have 

 sometimes been discovered in it. Beneath the peat, a thin 

 bed of blue clay commonly appears : this layer of clay is 

 usually about a foot in thickness ; but Mr Eldering has ob- 

 served it, in some places, only a few inches thick, and it 

 seems in other places to be altogether wanting. In this 

 blue clay are many marks of vegetable remains, such as 

 leaves and bark of trees. Below the clay, again, occurs an 

 " ugly red sort of mixed stuff,*" no specimen of which we 

 could at this time see, and through which the workmen had 

 never penetrated. 



Voorhclnts Nurseries. 



Aug. 30. — We next morning visited the flower-garden 

 and nurseries of Mynheer Voorhelm, a name usually as- 

 sociated by English tourists, . who have visited Haarlem, 

 with that of Van Eeden, and equally celebrated for a hun- 

 dred years past, the present florist being the grandson of 

 him who is so often mentioned in Justice's " Scots Gar- 

 dener, 01 — an excellent and original work, published at Edin- 

 burgh about the middle of the last century. 



We found Mr Voorhelm's collection of bulbs to be very 

 considerable ; but not superior to some others in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood. Among the greatest rarities in his 

 garden were seedling plants of the Stone Pine-tree, (Pinus 

 Pinea), raised from large cones which he had procured 

 from Italy, where the kernels are often served up in the 

 dessert : the stone-pine, it must be understood, is really an 

 uncommon plant in Holland. We observed a pear-tree, 



