PAius. 419 



the elegant pinnated foliage was seen, waving aloft with the 

 light breezes ; for some of the shoots of this season were 

 now no less than nine feet in length. 



There is one collection of fruit-trees in a nursery adjoin- 

 ing the botanical garden, and another at some distance ; 

 but, as far as our observation went, we would regard Mr 

 Cels's superiority as consisting chiefly in the number of 

 scarce, curious and beautiful exotics. 



Before leaving the grounds, we had some conversation 

 with Mr Cels in his counting-house ; for he had been de- 

 tained by business there, during most of the time which 

 we spent in viewing the gardens. He spoke very warmly 

 in praise of the rich collections of London, and acknow- 

 ledged that he had acquired in that quarter some of the 

 plants which were most precious in his eyes ; particularly 

 plants of New Holland, Nepaul, China, and the Cape of 

 Good Hope. He expressed his happiness to hear of the 

 progress of horticulture in a country so cold and so remote 

 as Scotland, and his willingness to correspond with us, 

 when our Experimental Garden should be established. 

 We had noticed several plants of the curious variety of 

 Salix babylonica foliis revolutis, which had been procured 

 from the Botanic Garden at Ghent, where we first saw it 

 (p. 40.) : Mr Cels now remarked to us, that the revolute 

 character does not remain permanent ; in strong and rich 

 soils he finds the leaves apt to become straight, while in dry 

 and poor ground they continue " courbues." The Rham- 

 nus hybrida or sempervirens, we may add, was original- 

 ly raised in this garden, and resulted from an experiment 

 of Mr Cels, who applied the pollen of R. frangula to flow- 

 ers of R. alaternus which had been deprived of stamina. 

 This hybrid variety was figured and described by L'Heri- 

 tier, in the publication entitled " Plantes rares de Cels " 



i) d& 



