BRUSSELS. .311 



Mods assured us, that neither his fruit nor his flowers are 

 <:ver touched by the passengers. Fruit is here no great 

 prize ; but in our own country, we fear, a garden so cir- 

 cumstanced, would soon be destroyed, from the sheer love 

 of mischief. 



Mr Van Mons attends to other branches of horticulture 

 besides the raising of fruit-trees. He shewed us a low 

 frame adapted to receive glass covers, from which three 

 crops of celery have this year been already procured ; and 

 a fourth is in progress. The celery however is small, and 

 scarcely in any degree blanched, being intended only for 

 soups. — Nor has he been altogether inattentive to the rai- 

 sing of ornamental plants, particularly roses. Of these he 

 possesses a very considerable variety ; and in this favour- 

 able situation, they spring up so readily, that he enjoys 

 every advantage for prosecuting their culture. He point- 

 ed out to us some seedling rose-bushes, many of them with 

 the leading shoots nearly a foot high, which had sprung 

 from seeds sown in March last (1817), after the heps had 

 lain in his repositories for more than a dozen of years. 



Before we parted with this enthusiastic horticulturist, 

 he obligingly and readily yielded to our request that he 

 would send some cions of the new and approved varieties 

 into Scotland, at the proper season of the year *. 



We now proceeded to the messagerie, and having found 

 the conductor of a return voiture and pair for Lisle, 

 made a bargain with him to take us thither for 60 francs, 



* According to promise, Mr Van Mons sent to Edinburgh, early in 

 April 1818, a very considerable collection of cions from his favourite pear- 

 trees, including those the fruit of which wc had lasted and approved, and 

 several others which he had mentioned to us as yielding fruit of still supe- 

 rior quality. 



The 



