of parts. He maintained that all these various trees followed the proclivity of the mining rod, by which people used to detect the existence of minerals under the surface of the earth; that as the hazel wand tips downward in the open palm of the holder to indicate where minerals lie concealed, so the branches of all these great trees point downwards to show that metals are stored away for man far below the surface of the ground they shade. I stuck to the doctrine of "passional affinities," and urged that such high-bred trees never would have tended their aristocratic hands to common ploughed fields in that way, even if a thousand acres of coal or iron ore lay beneath the red furrows.
Although we missed the most brilliant and gorgeous half of the glory and beauty of this little garden world, or the flower show, the other half was more admirable still for the season. We saw what Nature can be assisted and taught to do in the chills, frosts, and fogs of an English November. After visiting the conservatory, which is a crystal palace of most symmetrical proportions, in the arabesque or mosque style, we passed through a half a mile of hot or forcing houses, where all the climates, seasons, soils, fruits, and vegetables of the earth's various latitudes are produced. Here, on the last day of November, were now potatoes growing, already nearly as large as hens' eggs, to
