BRUSSELS. 295 



generally drawn entire from the ground, and in that state 

 sent to market, — a wasteful practice which cannot be too soon 

 relinquished. The tendency to run to flower in the spring is 

 restrained by lifting the plants, and laying them slantwise 

 in the earth, in a north border or a shady place, as is often 

 practised with cauliflower. 



Brussels sprouts are now cultivated in all our first-rate 

 private gardens in Scotland ; but they are still little known 

 in the Edinburgh green-market, — an omission which, we 

 hope, will soon be supplied by our enterprising sale-gardeners. 

 The Horticultural Society has for several years awarded 

 premiums, in the month of December, for the best speci- 

 mens then produced ; and sprouts of excellent quality have 

 sometimes been brought forward. We may remark, that 

 very small and compact crowns are held in the highest es- 

 teem at Brussels ; they are never more than an inch across, 

 and frequently mere buttons ; large crowns would be ut- 

 terly rejected *. 



Due d'Aremberg's Town-Garden. 



Having been favoured with a letter of introduction through 

 the attention of the Earl of Wemyss (then President of the 

 Horticultural Society), we made a forenoon call at the resi- 

 dence of the Due d'Aremberg. Unluckily for us, the 

 Duke was at this time gone to Louvain, near to which he 

 has large estates, and which was now (as already noticed) 

 the seat of a great fair. This interesting nobleman, it is 



* A very compact and excellent sub-variety is cultivated by Walter 

 Dickson, Esq. of Redbraes, near Edinburgh. By employing only the most 

 genuine specimens for the production of seed, and by keeping these far apart 

 from similar cruciform plants, the character has, for several years past, been 

 preserved inviolate. 



