botanical
curiosities of the place.

During the six months since our last visit, Mr. Cross has been
indefatigable. The grounds have been laid out under the superintendance of
Mr. Henry Phillips, the author of _Sylva Florifera_, and it is almost
impossible to give the reader an idea of their beauty and variety. The
avenues to the various buildings are planted with forest-trees, and each
tree and new plant has its name affixed on a tally; a botanical garden, on
a small scale, is, moreover talked of.

But we are forgetting the zoological tenants. The visiter enters by a
broad walk, beside which Parrots, Maccaws, and Cockatoos are uncaged on
perches; so that we may almost say with Montgomery:--

The blossoms swung like blossoms on the trees.

To the right is a semicircular glazed house containing many beautiful
foreign birds, and two Boas, which, from their torpidity, appear nearly as
harmless as their shaggy namesakes that encircle many a fair neck. The
movable aviaries are too numerous to describe; but we must notice, in one
of them, a fine pair of Great Crowned Pigeons from New Guinea; their front
colour is a bright slate, as is that of their crests of fine silky
feathers. We next pass the circular Confectionary room, and reach the
curvilinear glazed building of 300 feet in diameter. (_See the Cut_.) This
has been planned by Mr. Henry Phillips; of the execution we spoke in _The
Mirror_, No. 528. There are four entrances to this well-contrived building.
Immediately within the wall, and all throughout the circle, is a channel
of water containing gold and silver fish; from the margin of which plants
are to be trained up within the glass. Next is a circular range of seats,
then a broad walk, and in the centre of the building are placed the cages
of carnivorous quadrupeds, as Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Hyaenas, &c. The
Lions are especially worth notice: they are African and Asiatic, and the
contrast between a pair from the country of the Persian Gulf with their
African neighbours, is very striking. A sleek Lynx from Persia, with its
exquisite tufted ears, and a docile Puma, will receive the distant
caresses of visiters. The fronts of the cages are ornamented with painted
rock-work, and our artist has endeavoured to convey an idea of the lordly
Lion in his embellished dwelling. The whole building is admirably
ventilated.

Another addition is an octagonal walled enclosure, the entrances to which
are surmounted by pairs of