THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August 19, 1850. 
371 
the birds above sang anthems to their praise. Pavilion 
after pavilion arose, furnished in the most superb style, 
with windows stained in every hue and design, and draped 
with ample curtains and painted blinds in all the excellence 
of high art. The walks are generally composed of pebbles 
stuck artistically in cement, decorated with designs in white 
and black, which feel most comfortable to the feet and grate - 
ful to the eye; and in looking over their rich green borders, 
the earth was strewn with fallen fruit, such as we observe in 
orchards at home in autumn, but of a very different kind ; 
and occasionally heaps of lemons gathered together similar 
to the manner we gather our potatoes into bins in Britain. 
Not being altogether skilled in botany, it is impossible for 
me to give the names of trees and flowers indigenous to this 
climate, and highly cultivated and preserved by many skilful 
hands. There is no necessity here for conservatories, the 
whole extensive parterre being a natural hothouse of itself. 
In the centres of the converging avenues are water-spouts 
and fountains, with pavilions seated round, while other walks 
lead to terraces of great height, reached by capacious stairs, 
with openings in the balustrades for landing on each terrace, 
where streams of water rush along both for coolness and irri¬ 
gation, and along the margins of which grow the rarest 
flowers and fruit-trees. All this was the great conception of 
the ingenious Mahomed Ali, the deceased father of the 
present Pasha. 
We now come to an extensive quadrangular building, the 
outside of which scarcely gives an idea of the grandeur 
within, and ascending a flight of marble stairs, a massive 
gate is opened, and an enchanted palace bursts upon llie 
eye. This marvellously grand elysium is called the “ Foun¬ 
tain," and all the peerless beauty of the East seems concen¬ 
trated here. The centre is open to the sunlit sky, with a 
marble promenade all round the sides, 300 feet in length, 
and about 50 in breadth, covered with a highly-ornamented 
verandah supported on 300 Italian carved marble pillars of 
20 feet high, each formed of one stone. Great marble 
bowers, surrounded with solid marble borders, are laid out 
like drawing-rooms, one in each centre of quadrangle, fur¬ 
nished with divans and ottomans of the most sumptuous 
order, and in the rarest styles of foreign design. Inside of 
this vast edifice, and open to the sun, is a lake with a great 
centre, double balustraded and decorated with vases full of 
flowers, where, with little skiffs, you may row over and pace 
the extensive floor of this artificial island, so elegant in 
structure; while all around the canopied promenade, win¬ 
dows unglazed, but grated with fanciful liars resembling 
panes, let in the balmy air that wafts in gentleness the 
garden odours around you. In each corner circled off are 
also suites of rooms, which tlie keepers open to show you. 
The first we entered dazzled our eyes and excited our 
imagination, for the perfection, the grandeur, the wealth, 
the art in all departments, almost exceeded belief; and as 
we proceeded to the other three, amazement still increased. 
It is said the decorative art of window-staining is lost, 
but here the flattest contradiction is given by ocular demon¬ 
stration. The richness of the colours, the chasteness of 
combination, the chiaroscuro, the designs and workmanship, 
are as much alive, and even more resplendent, than in the 
mediaeval times. The blinds, also, are in colour and design 
equal to the finest paintings. Then come the amply draped 
and fringed curtains of damask satin, white, and purple, 
and anon the furnituie and ornamental damask divans and 
ottomans, and sofas and chairs of rare value; while the 
roofs and walls are sparkling with inlaid gold and green, nml 
the crystal chandeliers hung with precious stones of various 
size, shape, and colour. The mirrors are also fine, and one 
of tho floors of mosaic-laid wood polished to the transpa¬ 
rency of plate glass, while round and round stand lofty 
candelabra in massive columns, coloured to imitate the ruby 
or amber, and tables with centres of inlaid beauty, and 
lieotrs of the purest marble. Words cannot fully express 
what tho eye perceives iu such elaborated repositories of 
wealth, art, and magnificence. 
Those beautiful gardens and palaces are for the summer 
enjoyment of Halim Pasha and the ladies of the seraglio, 
who generally frequent them on Fridays, when the gates are 
closed to travellers and the public. Andrew 1'ark. 
[The above is from the “Note Book" of Mr. Andrew 
Park, the Scottish poet.] 
HOULE DE NEIGE GERANIUM AS A BEDDER. 
I venture to inform you that your correspondent iu last 
week’s Cottage Gardener is wrong in saying that Bottle de 
Neitje will not do out-of-doors. I have part of a bed planted 
with it and Triomphe tin Mont Rouge, and both sorts have 
done as well as common Scarlets. Messrs. Kinghorn and 
Perinycook were much pleased on seeing both varieties 
doing so well, as they luul been informed that neither sort 
would flower well planted out. My cuttings of both sorts 
are struck, and potted off, My German and China Asters 
are as fine as ever, although 1 have not had fresh seed for 
four years.—A Subscriber, Cain Lodge, Twickenham. 
BEES SWARMING WITHOUT A QUEEN. 
In reply to “A Kilkenny Subscriber,” in your number of 
the 5th instant, your apiarian correspondent,./. T V., says— 
“ When your bees attempted twice to swarm there could be 
no queens with them, otherwise they would not have returned 
to the hive.” This is a doctrine which, I believe, is sup¬ 
ported by no evidence ; and we know, on the contrary, that 
swarms with a queen very often return to the parent hive, 
and issue again, sometimes on tho same day, unless the 
queen bee is unable to fly, when she may occasionally be 
picked up from the ground, as I have witnessed. The 
theory of bees swarming without a queen is a novel one, 
which 1 must disbelieve till certain proof is afforded of its 
truth. —An Old Bee-master. 
[We shall he glad to hear from you more frequently on 
the subject of bees.—E d. C. G.] 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
BANISHING ANTS. 
“ Can you, or any of your correspondents, inform me how 
to get rid of ants, with which 1 am much troubled in my 
Melon pit?—R. C. L.” 
[A contemporary says that stirring up the ants’ nest, and 
sprinkling over it n little genuine guano, drives them away 
effectually. This is worthy of a trial. If it proves effectual, 
or if it does not, try also a similar stirring and a watering 
with the amiponiaeal liquor of the gas-works.] 
SEEDLING FROM MANGLESJS VARIEGATED 
GERANIUM. 
“After many attempts and failures I have at length suc¬ 
ceeded in obtaining a seedling from Mangles’s Variegated 
Geranium. It is at present entirely green ; the flower is 
larger, and of a brighter colour than the parent. I am now 
puzzled what to cross it with, but think of using the pollen 
of the parent. Your advice through the medium of The 
Cottage Gardener, or otherwise, would oblige an old 
bybridiscr. 
“ Last winter I found a plant of the common Lamb’s 
Tongue, every leaf of which is beautifully striped like the 
Ribbon Grass, and continues so now. I have saved the 
seed.—R. E.’’ 
[Just what wo expected. We once possessed the same 
offspring, and had a bed of it three years running, and had 
two generations between it and its parent. We could not 
force a cross between it and the variegated form, or any of 
the kinds then in cultivation ; and owing to its large leaves, 
and its free disposition to seed in the bed, we gave it up. 
But there may be a trifling difterence in your plant, on 
account of its parent, and that parent is the only one with 
which it is likely to cross. 
What is Lamb's Tongue ? We never heard the name 
before. Few variegated plants come true from seeds, and it 
is fifty to one against any of your seedlings doing so.] 
CALYSTEGIA PUBESCENS. 
“ I should feel much obliged if, through your useful 
paper, you would give me a list of climbing plants which 
