Nature and Art, February 1, 1867.] 
MUSIC ABBOAD. 
59 
might be mentioned. Our plant, however, is not 
from the arid region characterized by the above- 
mentioned varieties of the vegetable kingdom, but 
from the high elevated forests of the Golungo Alto, 
in Angola, where, according to Dr. W elwitsch, it 
adorns the loftiest trees on the margins of the 
forests, causing the traveller to pause in amazement 
before its grandeur. It may truly be called the 
queen of the Leguminosae or pea-flower family, of 
which it is a member, outrivalling as it does in the 
size and magnificence of its flowers all its relations 
from all parts of the world. Even in Australia, 
where, in some districts, this family is the pre- 
vailing feature, and is, in proportion to the other 
families, more largely represented than in any 
other region of the globe, only one, Clianthus 
Dampierii (now frequently seen in our green-houses), 
whose flowers are infinitely smaller, though more 
brilliantly coloured, can vie with ' this noble plant. 
It is to be sincerely hoped that an opportunity may 
soon occur of introducing it; and this difficulty 
once overcome, it would spread rapidly throughout 
the country, for members of this family are, as a 
rule, easy of cultivation and propagation. 
The position assigned to this genus in the family 
by Bentham, and Hooker is in the Sophorese, dis- 
tinguished from the neighbouring tribes by having 
not more than ten uncombined stamens. The well- 
known Sophora Japonica of our gardens, a large 
ornamental tree with fern-like leaves, is the typical 
genus of the tribe. Camoensia of itself forms a 
subtribe with three leaflets on each stalk, a broad 
upper petal, narrow distinct lower petals, and 
numerous ovules. The following is a popular de- 
scription of the species represented on the plate. A 
tall, smooth, climbing shrub, with drooping branches ; 
leaves on stalks about two inches and a half long ; 
leaflets of the leaf almost destitute of stalks, about 
four inches long and one inch and a half broad, 
margin uncut ; flowers in pendulous 6-12 flowered 
racemes, ten inches to a foot in length ; calyx, 
or outer covering of the flower, six inches long, 
with its segments turned backwards ; petals white, 
bordered with gold, the upper one much larger 
than the others. The ripe pod is about the size of 
that of a broad bean, but with a thicker and harder 
shell. The plant is reduced one half in the plate. 
One other species only of the genus is known 
also from tropical Africa, but nearer the equator, 
and a very handsome plant, but falls into com- 
parative insignificance by the side of its more showy 
congener. 
Not long ago a coloured drawing of Camoensia 
was shown at one of the South Kensington Hor- 
ticultural Society meetings, and a hope expressed 
that ere long it might be introduced to our con- 
O o 
servatories : it is to be desired that it may. 
W. H. F. 
MUSIC ABROAD. 
A S the old gentleman, according to the fable, discovered 
very, very long ago, thanks to the donkey which he 
could neither ride, drive, nor lead without exposing himself 
to the reproaches or incurring the raillery of the persons 
he met upon the . road, there is certainly no pleasing 
everybody, or, to put it in a forcible, though somewhat 
familiar form : “ what is one man’s meat is another man’s 
poison.” As a rule, when the Viennese have nothing else 
to do, they abuse the management of the Imperial Opera- 
house for hot providing sufficient novelty. Now they are 
absolutely finding fault with it for supplying them with that 
commodity. Sig. Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera, or Masken- 
ball , as it is entitled in the Viennese playbills, has been 
produced at the Karnthnerthor Theater of Vienna, and a 
number of foolish individuals immediately raise a cry that 
an act of leze-majesty has been committed against German 
art ; that a wrong has been inflicted on the “national” 
opera. For our own part, we certainly consider the 
management acted very wisely in enriching its German 
operatic repertory with a work which has everywhere proved 
so successful as Der Maslcenball. Whether that work 
satisfies all that critics are justified in requiring', is a 
question that must, probably, be answered in the negative. 
But in the domain of music, more, perhaps, than anywhere 
else, novelty is indispensable. The number of really 
classical operas, and of operas traditionally so called, is 
very far from being large enough to constitute an entire 
repertory ; the consequence is, that new works must be 
added to the best among the old ones. When any par- 
ticular period, like the present period in Germany, proves 
unproductive in the way of operatic chefs-d’ ceuvre, that 
which is relatively best must be picked out, and the public 
content themselves with it. This standard of merely 
relative excellence is the only standard applicable to the 
German lyric stage at the present moment, and critics will 
have to adopt it, even against their inclination, if they 
would exercise their functions fairly and with advantage to 
the cause of art. So much in answer to the assertion that 
Der Maslcenball is not a first-class production. With 
regard to its being composed by an Italian, those musical 
patriots, who, on that account, object to its figuring in the 
German list of the Imperial Opera-house, forget, probably, 
that, for the moment, Germany cannot point to any living 
operatic composer of any note. Granting, for the sake of 
argument, that Herr Bi chard Wagner ever composed an 
opera worth hearing, even that gentleman’s warmest 
admirers will hardly deny that the last specimen of the kind 
from his pen was his Lohengrin. All that has followed it 
has been a series of abstruse experiments, without any 
vitality upon the stage. Yet, at the present date, Herr 
Bichard Wagner is the sole representative of German com- 
posers witb a reputation abroad. Whatever may be the 
failings and shortcomings in the more recent operas by 
Verdi and Gounod, these gentlemen are undoubtedly the 
most talented among existing operatic composers. It is not 
simply to a love of what is foreign, to a mere caprice of 
fashion, that they owe the position they have achieved in 
Germany. Of all the German operas produced during the 
last twenty years, the most bigoted admirer of the country 
that gave birth to Mozart and to Beethoven, to Meyerbeer 
and to Mendelssohn, would be sorely puzzled to adduce a 
single act equal, in melodic invention and dramatic effect, 
to the second or third act of Faust ; the fourth of II 
Trovatore ; the third of La Truviata ; or the second of TJn 
Ballo in Maschera. This may be mortifying- to German 
pride, but it is the truth. The reader must not, however, 
conclude, from such a state of things, that German com- 
posers have been, or are idle. On the contrary, they all 
burn with eagerness to achieve theatrical triumphs, and 
I their zeal in composing operas might be taken as an example 
