ANTIENT PALM. 203 of iron work; it is about fourteen feet high, and was raised from seed by the celebrated Carolus Clusius, who died professor at Leyden in 1609: the professor who attended me, presented me with a bit of its bark, as a little relic. This tree and the pot in which it grows, are also figured in the frontispiece of Boerhaave's Index before mentioned: it there appears to have been about half as high as at present, and is said to be the palm mentioned by Linnæus in his Prælectiones in Ordines Naturales Plantarum, p. 27, published by Giseke in 1792, at Hamburgh, which Linnæus suspected to be a chamærops, but which, as the ingenious Dr. Smith observes, his editor rightly refers to the rhapis flabelli formis, Ait. Hort. Kew, v. iii. p. 473. It comes from China and Japan: there is a tree of this kind, and about as large, in the botanic garden at Paris, and another at Pisa. In this garden is also the ginkgo of the Chinese, a standard twenty feet high; Strelitzia reginæ, Ait. Hort. Kew, v. i. p. 285, tab. 2, which has never yet flowered in any garden out of England; the olea laurifolia, a new species according to Mr. Van Royen; Royena lucida in flower, as large as a moderate hawthorn tree, and thought to be very handsome; and a singular plant from the Cape, supposed to be an echites, with à large tuberous root raised high above the surface of the ground, two or three weak stems a foot high, and large 1 204 BUSTS AND STATUES. dark brown flowers. In the university library is Rauwolf's Herbarium, which is very magnificent, and the plants well preserved; also Boccone's Herbarium of the plants desscribed in his Fasciculus Plantarum, published by Morison at Oxford, in 1674; these specimens are very poor: Herman's Collection of Ceylon Plants is also here, which are a part of the celebrated Herbarium, the rest of which is at Copenhagen; also a volume of West India plants, belonging to Herman, which are very scarce in Holland, and a fine collection of mathematical instruments; amongst other things, a most pure and brilliant prism of Brazil pebble, and a two-inch cube of Iceland refracting spar, perfectly clear and free from blemish. In a very long apartment in the gallery there are some busts and statues in tolerable preservation, but of no great value; the best are busts of Nero and Agrippina, Servilius and a Bacchus: they were presented to the university by a citizen of the town. I was shewn into a small room containing some stuffed birds and beasts, which were in very poor condition. The theatre of anatomy is very near the botanic garden; in it is a valuable collection of anatomical and pathological subjects. This hall is well worthy the notice of the traveller, as well for its valuable contents, as for having furnished Europe with some of its best physicians. This library is celebrated throughout Eu rope, for the many valuable specimens of oriental literature with which it abounds, exclusive of the books before mentioned. Golius, upon his return from the East, and who afterwards filled with great reputation the Arabic professorship of the university, has enriched this valuable depositary of learning with many Arabic, Turkish, Chaldean, and Persian manuscripts. I have before mentioned that Joseph Scaliger bequeathed his valuable collection of Hebrew books to it. The precious manuscripts contained here are said to exceed eight thousand. Since the last war commenced, no addition of English publications has been made to this library, which contains the Transactions of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies of London, and the Histories of Gibbon, Robertson, and Hume. To suffer an inimical disposition between two countries to erect a barrier between intellectual communication is giving additional barbarism to the ferocity of war. To the honor of England and France, they have never permitted those melancholy conflicts which have so long, and so fatally inflamed the one against the other, to check the free and liberal interchange of philosophical discovery and literary investigation. Whilst the respective governments have been engaged in reciprocal schemes of vengeance, the learned societies of both countries have communed with. each other in the language of peace and liberality. The king of Spain has presented this library with some magnificent folios, descriptive of the antiquities of Herculaneum. The books are principally bound in fine white parchment, and are gilded and decorated with considerable taste and splendor. There are in this room several excellent portraits of eminent men who have belonged to the university, or who have been benefactors to it: the head of that elegant and voluptuous poet Johannes Secundus, who died at the age of twenty-five, distinguishable for its dark penetrating eyes, a dust complection, and black hair and beard, is very fine. There are also very interesting portraits of Janus Douse, who during the siege of Leyden exhibited the most adınirable heroism, by which he acquired the applause of the Prince of Orange and the government of the town: this hero shone in letters as well as arms; also of Erasmus at different stages of his life; of Hugo Donellus, painted after death, in which all the appearances of mortality are finely imitated with ghastly precision; also of Daniel Heinsius, and a miniature of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein. There are also several medallion likenesses of distinguished Englishmen carved in ivory, such as Milton, Marvel, Ludlow, Wickliffe, Harrington, &c. &c. executed by an English refugee, who took shelter in Holland after the overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion. There is a mu ATTRACTIONS OF THIS UNIVERSITY. 207 seum of natural history, principally collected by Professor Allemand, containing some fine ores, corals, and pebbles, and also some rare quadrupeds and amphibia: also a young ostrich in the egg; the nautilus with the animal in it, and some papilios. In the anatomical theatre are the valuable preparations of Albinus, amongst them are specimens of the progress of ossification in the foetus. This university has also to boast of the works of Mr. Pestel, professor of jurisprudence, for his admirable work, entitled Fundamenta Jurisprudentiæ Naturalis. The constitutional regulations of this university are conceived in a noble spirit of liberality. No offensive obligations, no religious tests, no repulsive oaths, are imposed, no insidious attempts at proselytism are exercised. Youths of every religious persuasion mingle together in perfect harmony; like brothers they aggregate to study, and not to quarrel about modes of faith. Whatever may be the rank of the student, or from whatever country he may come, he speedily adopts the decent, gentle, and frugal manners and habits of the inhabitants. The long war and revolution in this country have naturally withdrawn a great number of young men of rank and fortune from this seminary, and prevented others from entering it. The students do not now exceed two hundred. A considerable number of English students, in a period of peace, used to flock to |