CHAP. Ill, 



CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 



145 



gians at Lacken, in the Due d'Aremberg's seat at Enghien, and that of 

 Sir Henry T. Oakes near Tournaj-. The nurseries of Holland are celebrated 

 for their fruit trees, and those of the Netherlands for their magnolias and 

 azaleas, and other peat-earth trees and shrubs. That of M. Parmentier at 

 Enghien has long been remarkable for containing a great many species in a 

 very limited space; and that of M. le Candele at Hurabeque, near Brussels, 

 contains the best collection of the genus t'ratae^gus in the Low Countries. 

 Some account of this nursery, with notices of its more remarkable trees, will 

 be found in the Gardener'' s Magazine, vol, xi. p. 537. 



In the garden at Lacken there are a few fine specimens of foreign trees, 

 particularly a tulip tree, which Mr. M'Litosh, the head gardener to the King 

 of the Belgians, informs us, had, in 1834, a clear stem of 20 ft., the diameter 

 of which at the surface of the ground was fully 3 ft., and at the height of 20 ft. 

 about 2 ft. ; the head was globular and compact. This tree flowered and ripened 

 seeds every year. When Lacken belonged to France, the palace was oc- 

 cupied by the Empress Josephine, who brought her gardener from Paris to 

 superintend the gardens; and the poor man, while he was gathering the seeds 

 of this tulip tree, fell from it, and broke his neck. The trees and shrubs in 

 the Brussels Botanic Garden have been planted within the last fifteen years: 

 those in the Ghent Botanic Garden are much older; among them is a Populus 

 canadensis, 100 ft. high, and upwards of 17 ft. in circumference at 1 ft. from 

 the ground. There are, a Robinza Pseud-^cacia, 60 ft. high ; a.Catdljm syringcs- 

 foHa, with a trunk between 8 ft. and 9 ft. in circumference ; Kiburnum O'pulus, 

 22 ft. high ; two tulip trees, 70 ft. high ; a Salisbury, 23 ft. high ; Gymno- 

 cladus, 70 ft. high ; lime trees, 60 ft high ; and Magnolia auriculata, conspicua, 

 and tripetala, from 20 ft. to 25 ft. high. In the grounds of Mr. Herry of 

 Mariakirk is a Catabpa, 40 ft. high, with a trunk 6 ft. in circumference at 1 ft. 

 from the ground. In the grounds of Baron le Norman, near the same town, 

 there are, an Aildntus (there called the Virginian sumach), 30 years planted, 

 and 45 ft. high ; and a ,/uniperus virginiana, 40 years planted, and 30 ft. high. 

 The largest salisburia in Holland is in the botanic garden at Utrecht, its 

 height being nearly 50 ft. 



In consequence of the present unfriendly feeling between Holland and Bel- 

 gium, we have been unable to procure notices of the trees and shrubs of the 

 more remarkable places of either country. We know, however, that there are 

 many fine specimens, and that though the winters are colder than those of 

 England, yet that the summers are warmer, and that the greater part of the 

 deciduous American trees and shrubs thrive there as well as in England. 

 Many of the finest azaleas in our nurseries, and some varieties of magnolia and 

 rhododendron, have been raised from seed in the neighbourhood of Ghent. 

 The winters, however, are unfavourable for evergreens, and but few of these 

 are to be found in any part of the country. In Smith's Tour on the Continent^ 

 Neill's Horiicult.ural Tour, and in various articles in the Gardener'' s Magazine, 

 will be found descriptive sketches of many of the small gardens of Holland 

 and the Netherlands, all more or less remarkable for their American trees and 

 shrubs. Of large places which may be compared with the country seats of 

 England, and which might be supposed to afford many examples of fine old 

 trees, there are comparatively few, as has beeii already observed above by a 

 correspondent, a native of the country. 



Sect. III. Of the Indigenous and Foreign Trees and Shrubs of 

 Germany, including Hungary. 



Though this portion of Europe is of great extent, yet its ligneous flora is 

 much less variecl and numerous than that of France. The reasons are, that 

 it extends in longitude more than in latitude; that it contains few very lofty 

 mountains, and embraces but a small latitudinal portion of the sea shore. It 

 includes Hungary, however, which enjoys a greatly diversified surface, and an 

 extensive range of mountains, with a ligneous flora which has furnished some 



