rman archway of _Monreale_, and its fine bronze gates crusted
with a beautiful hard polished _coin-like patina_, would repay the
excursion, even were the interior less fine. Here we have columns from
whose high architraves the Gothic arch springs vigorously; walls
perfectly covered with old Byzantine mosaics; a roof of marvellous
lightness, and almost modern elegance; still the critic, who is bound by
_metier_ to find fault with violated canons, will, we must own, be at no
loss for a text in the church of Monreale--a building which is, however,
of sufficient importance in ecclesiastical architecture to have been
designed, measured, and engraved, in whole and in part, in a splendid
volume, published in folio, by the Duke of Serra di Falco.

VISIT TO THE GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF SERRA DI FALCO, NEAR PALERMO.

After a delicious half hour's drive through country lanes hedged with
cactus, aloes, and pomegranates, we find ourselves in front of a small
villa distant about two miles from the sea. As to the house, many an
English gentleman, in very moderate circumstances, has a far better; but
on passing the archway of this Sicilian country-box into its garden, two
trees, which must be astonished at finding themselves out of
Brazil--trees of surpassing beauty--are seen on a crimson carpet of
their own fallen petals, mixed with a copious effusion of their seeds,
like coral. At the northern extremity of Italy (Turin) this _Erythinia
corallodendron_ is only a small stunted shrub; nor is it much bigger at
Naples, where it grows under cover. Six years in the _open air_ have in
Sicily _produced_ the tree before you: it is, in fact, larger than most
of our fruit-bearers. We next recognise an agreeable acquaintance,
formed two years ago, in the _Neapolis Japonicus_; it bears a delicate
fruit, of the size of a plum, whose yellow, freckled skin contains such
a nectar-like juice that the pine-apple itself scarcely excels it. Our
fellow-passenger, the infallible voice of a new-made cardinal of the
warlike name of Schwarzenburg, who tasted it here, as he told us, for
the first time, has already pronounced a similar opinion, and no
dissentients being heard, the Japan medlar passed with acclamation. The
_Buggibellia spectabilis_ of New Holland, calls you to look at his pink
_blossoms_, which are no other than his leaves in masquerade. We grub
up, on the gardener's hint and permission, some of the _Cameris
humilis_, to whose filamentous radicles