492 A walk through the Nat. History Museum at Florence. [May, | 
of the botanical department, is commemorated in marble, and — 
stands in friendly opposition to the generous enthusiast Webb. 
A walk through the botanical gardens and greenhouse proved 
very interesting ; the former especially, since it served to indicate — 
the character of the winters that have permitted Chemerops hi- — 
milis to grow thirty feet high in the open air, grand clumpsof — 
Nerium oleander to flourish unscathed, and giant Lagerstremia in- — 
dica, rivaling our quince trees in size, to exist without protection. 
Pampas grass also endures the winters here unguarded from ; 
snows and cold. The Botanical gardens adjoin the Boboli gar 
den of the Pitti palace, but are not generally open to the strolling 
visitor. A much larger space has recently been devoted to the 
construction of new gardens for the scientific arrangement and 
study of plants, which lies near the “ Institute for higher studies: 
on the Piazzo San Marco. The street upon which it opens is 4 
propriately named Via Micheli. 
Passing for the present the grand Tribune of Gali 
entered at the western end of the corridor, the middle door 
which has given us access to the Botanical hall, let us ascend to 
the second piana (the third story of the American). Before us 
over the entrance toa series of rooms, we read, “ Re 
and observe on the right a marble bust of Fontana, eae 
entific projector and arranger of this museum, and on the le 
wide doorway invites, through which we discern 
between successive minor cepartments, whose W 
with glazed cases, in which are exhibited a large collectien 
jects of scientific interest. We enter unchallenged by the 
selves at the base of the scheme of animal existence, 
section of it that can be illustrated by mural specimens 
lar instruction. 
Having entered, we quietly soliloquize—here we 
museum in which some presiding mind has gui 
of the myriad objects that compose it. 
mighty chain of being, lessening down from Infi E 
to the brink of dreary nothing—desolate abyss P Be had comè 
onward, 
through my memory, and never before did I imagi pi 
so near to finding an answer to my query. As We P 
leo, whichis — 
ad | 
gno Animale” 
the early sc 
ien a dout- i 
and are within a small room devoted to zoophytes, and g tht 
or 
for pop’ 7 
have found ® q 
ded the aie d 
“Has any sect 7 
nite Perfecto" 4 
fren r 
