'itiS HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



set off in the forenoon. We got on very slowly ; but, on 

 our expressing some impatience, our postilion soon cured 

 us, by letting us know that the same horses were to go 

 all the way, about forty miles. The road was heavy 

 and unmettled ; and we would have gladly exchanged it 

 for the noisy pave near Ghent. In general, the country 

 was rather poor and moorish. In the moist grounds, 

 sweet Gale (Myrica Gale) *, was not uncommon ; and on 

 the sandy moors in one place we descried a few plants of 

 German Tamarisk (Tamarix Germanica), which would 

 scarcely survive on an exposed Scottish heath. Where 

 cultivation was practicable, husbandry was not neglected. 

 The corn was in stooks on the field ; and we now obser- 

 ved for the first time a wand stuck into every tenth stook, 

 denoting that it had been claimed or set apart as tithe, — 

 a sure indication that we were leaving the presbyterian 

 territory. The crops of spurrey after rye and wheat, already 

 clothed the fields with a dense green herbage, nearly con- 

 cealing the stubble. This cultivated spurrey is decidedly 

 a more desirable fodder-plant than the common native 

 yar (Spergula arvensis) of our Scottish fields ; and it de- 

 serves the attention of our agriculturists. It seems to be 

 the Spergula pentandra of botanists, improved in size and 

 succulence by cultivation. The great additional quantity 

 of green food for cows acquired by means of this after-crop 

 of spurrey, must prove highly useful to the farmer. 



For several hours, the road preserved a uniform straight 

 line, as far us the eye could reach. Through a dreary 

 sandy moor, of some miles in extent, it was lined with re- 

 cently planted beech-treef, generally about twenty feet 



• In our own country, this shrub is often called Scots Myrtle ; here its 

 popular name is Myrtle of Brabant. 



