The most interesting of the institutions I have mentioned is the Botanical Gai'den, at present under the direction of the celebrated Professor Norman. This garden is in fact a nursery in which all possible kinds of trees are planted, partly to supply the demands of the inhabitants of the steppe and partly to discover what kind of trees are suitable to the climate and soil. This garden does not contain less than four millions of trees, old and young, although half a million were killed by the frost of the past winter. The lovers of trees and gardens have indeed to stniggle here with great and almost insurmountable difficulties. First, with the droughts of summer, not even reHeved by any dew ; then, with the want of river and spring water ; thirdly, with the severity of the winter, and the violence of the storms ; and lastly, what is worst of all, with the substratum of chalk, which is fatal and murderous to the roots of all trees. As long as the trees are young and the roots continue in the upper soil, if the seasons are not too unfavourable, they usually flourish, but as soon as their roots reach the bed of chalk, they begin to grow sickly, their growth ceases, and most of them soon die. No tree in or near Odessa is more than twenty -eight years old, and though there has not yet been sufficient time to form a decisive judgment, not more than forty years having elapsed since plantations were first attempted in Odessa, yet the best gardeners and foresters are in despair about it, and the attempts which here and there natm-e seems to have made to plant trees in the steppe have succeeded just as ill as those of art. Their crippled and miserable state plainly indicates the unsuitableness of the soil, and the great forests which occupy the valleys of the Dnieper, the Dniester, &c. have never been able to gain a foot of land on the high steppe. The only method that has been found to ensure tolerable health for a tree in Odessa, is that of digging out the injurious stratum of chalk, and filling up the vacancy with good soil, and in some gardens regular canals have been dug, and avenues planted with some success, but such a plan could never be carried out on a very large scale.
The trouble that is taken with a tree in the Botanical Garden of Odessa may be understood, if we take as an example the treatment of the young pines. The seeds are sown in a box filled with earth, and placed in a greenhouse j there they are left for two years, and they are then planted out in pots, and in summer allowed to stand out in the open air, but kept in the shade, and in the winter put back into the greenhouse. When the youngtree is four or five years old, it is planted out in the garden, but still surrounded with a roof or covering of reeds, directed towards the north in the winter to keep off the cold wind, and towards the south in summer to protect it from the rays of the sun. From this it may be judged what foundation there is for the hopes expressed by some travellers " that the steppe will one day be covered with luxuriant forests."
The library of Odessa is exceedingly small and insignificant ; but as it contains a tolerable number of antiquities from Olbia and from the Chersonesus Trachea, and is besides most pleasantly situated, I often spent a few hours there and always found myself tete-a-tete wdth the librarian, an old Italian, who was busily engaged on an antiquarian work. In the booksellers' shops in Odessa, nothing is to be had but the new French books ; here and there you may meet with a little German circulating library, where Savon parfume, Eau de Cologne, and Sacs de Nuit, are also to be procured. These suffice for the literary wants of Odessa.
The other public buildings are the Imperial Lyceum, where there are as many professors as pupils ; the Exchange ; and the Theatre, said to be principally supported by Count Woronzoff, and where Italian operas are usually given, varied by amateur performances in various languages.
After observing the great movements of commerce in the external trade of Odessa, the traveller naturally feels some curiosity to see a few of Its internal operations.
Through the whole city up to its remotest extremities there runs a garland of shops, booths, &c. which present a cmnous assemblage of all or much that is to be found in the many lands whose fragments are here reflected as in a broken mirror. There are the " Magaslns de Nouveautes,' in the Rue de Richelieu ; the Greek bazaar for fruits, spices, tobacco, and vegetables, from Constantinople ; the booths for Russian, Tartar and Oriental goods ; the old and nev/ bazaars for fish and flesh ; and the bazaar outside the town, for cattle, hay, wood, horses, &c.