than a dozen
peaches and nectarines.

The fruit was sent regularly to the Royal Family in Paris.

There is a botanical garden at the _Petit Trianon_ in the park of
Versailles, but the person who shews it was out of the way, so that I
did not see it.

I passed several mornings in the Botanical National Garden, (_ci-devant
Jardin du Roi_.) That part of the garden which contains the botanical
collection is separated from the other part, which is open to the public
at large, by iron palisades. The names of the plants are painted on
square plates of tin, stuck in the ground on the side of each plant. I
saw a _Strelitzia_, which was there called _Ravenala_, (probably from
some modern botanist's name) _Mr. Thouin_, who superintends this garden,
said to me, "We will not have any aristocratic plants, neither will we
call the new Planet by any other name than that of its discoverer,
_Herschel_." I neglected to ask him why the plant might not retain its
original and proper name of _Heliconia Bihai_?

[Illustration: ANASTATICA or ROSE of JERICHO]

I here found the _Anastatica Hierochuntica_ or _Rose of Jericho_, which
I sought for in vain for several years, and advertised for in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, for January 1791, and in the newspapers. Many
descriptions and figures of this plant are to be found in old books, and
the dried plants are frequently to be met with. Old _Gerard_ very justly
says, "The coiner spoiled the name in the mint, for of all plants that
have been written of, there is not any more unlike unto the rose." The
annexed figure represents a single plant; it had been transplanted into
a deep pot, which had been filled with earth, so as to make it appear
like two plants. The stalks are shrubby, the leaves are fleshy, and of a
glaucous or sea-green colour. The _corolla_ consists of four very small
white petals. Its scientific description may be found in _Linnaeus_[12].
One of the _silicles_ is drawn magnified.

[Note 12: _Genera plantarum_, 798.]

Mr. Thouin pointed out to me a new and very beautiful species of
_Zinnia_, of which the flower is twice the size of that of the common
sort, and of a deep purple colour: a new _verbascum_, from the Levant;
it was about four feet high, the leaves were almost as woolly as those
of the _Stachys lanata_, and terminated in a point like a spur; it had
not yet flowered. And a new _solanum_, with spines the colour of gold.

He recommended the flower of the _spilanthus b