MOSCOW. 
a wholesome dinner. I saw them served at the 
stalls with plates of boiled rice, over which was 
poured a little honey; and for each of these they 
paid about a penny English. In the spring, 
apples are exposed for sale (which the Russians 
have a remarkable method of preserving through 
the winter, though we could not gain informa- 
tion how this was done), baked pears, salad, 
salted cucumbers (which are antiscorbutic, and 
esteemed delicious by persons of every rank), 
wild berries, boiled rice, quass, honey, and 
mead. As almost every eatable receives a 
formal benediction from the priest, before it is 
considered fit for use, no Russian will touch any 
article of food until that ceremony has taken 
place. A particular church, near the Mareschul 
Bridge, is set apart for the benediction of apples; 
and this ceremony does not take place until the 
first apple drops from the tree, which is brought 
in great form to the priest. A Mohammedan would 
sooner eat porh, than a Russian would eat uncon- 
secrated fruit. 
Having observed a very rare Siberian plant, 
the “ purple-flowered Henbane” ( Hyoscyamus 
Physalo'ides), growing wild in the garden of our 
friend and banker, Mr. Doughty, we thought the 
season sufficiently advanced to go, on the twenty- 
ninth of May , upon a botanical excursion to 
