THE BOOK OP THE ROYAL 



NJ 



given to it by Earl Eussell and tlie Foreign Office. Appreciating 

 as a statesman its national importance and the advantages wliicli 

 might be expected to flow from it, Earl Eussell lent the influence 

 of the Foreign Office in support of the invitations to contribute, 

 which were dispersed all over the world. The letters addressed 

 to the various British Consuls were sent under cover of the seal 

 of the Foreign Office, and backed by a special recommendation 

 from Earl Eussell. The effijct of these recommendations was, 

 that from almost every district where contributions were possible 

 they were made. Our limits will not permit of our giving a 

 detailed account of the show, but we may mention that scarcely 

 a country in Europe was unrepresented : Sweden, Norway, 

 Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Hamburg, Hanover, Prussia, 

 Eussia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain, aU sent collections, 

 some of very large extent ; Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Algiers, India, 

 Australia, Guiana, Jamaica, Venezuela, the United States, Upper 

 Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunsmck, Newfoundland, British 

 Columbia, Vancouver Island, aU contributed. An immense 

 collection of fruits, roots, vegetables, and cereals, was thus 

 brought together. Gourds were made a special feature, rather 

 from the curiosity and interest attached to them as bizarre 

 and queer-looking objects, than for any practical advantage 

 derivable from them ; but the chief merit of the exhibition 

 consisted in the oppoi'tunity afforded for the comparison of a 

 multitude of specimens of vegetable products brought from 

 every quarter of the globe ; and the means thus obtained for 

 ascertaining the names given to the same kind in different 

 countries. The benefits derived from this concourse are as yet 

 only beginning to be realised ; but it has led to a correspondence 



