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NEW BOOKS. 



The Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of Paris.* 

 By W. Robinson, F.L.S. 



Mr. Robinson has amply redeemed the promises he made us in his amusing 

 " Gleanings from French Gardens." His new and larger book is such a one as every 

 English gentleman should have upon his table for a year, and in his library 

 for ever after ; for it is rich in information, altogether new, seasoned with criticisms 

 and reflections that are both original and true. It is a comprehensive book, much 

 more so than might be inferred from the title, though that is appropriate enough. 

 It comprises descriptions of the parks, squares, boulevards, and other places of out- 

 door resort of the Parisians, as well as of such embellishments of an architectural 

 kind as would most readily engage the attention of a broad-minded observer of 

 national tastes and customs. As we cannot afford so much space for a notice of 

 this book as it undoubtedly deserves, we will briefly enumerate its contents, and 

 then make a few short extracts from its pages. About one half the volume is 

 devoted to descriptions and criticisms of the public parks and promenades of Paris. 

 In connection with these descriptions, which are fresh and original, and bring out 

 many facts which ordinary observers have taken no notice of, there are many 

 comparisons instituted between Paris and London, usually, but not invariably, to the 

 disadvantage of our own great city. Mr. Robinson is justifiably anxious that we 

 should adopt some of the French notions on the outward embellishment of cities, 

 and those who read his book with care will, in great part, if they do not wholly, 

 agree with him. Another large section of the book is devoted to fruit culture, the 

 object being to make English pomologists acquainted with French modes of grafting 

 and training fruit-trees, in many particulars of which they are confessedly in 

 advance of us — so much so, that France has been described as the " orchard of 

 Europe." The decoration of apartments with plants in Paris forms another im- 

 portant subject, which is ably and amply treated. Then we have sections devoted 

 to sub-tropical gardening, to the forcing of fruits and vegetables for market, and a 

 most amusing account of the enormous production of mushrooms in quarries, 

 cellars, and other subterranean gardens in Paris. To afford our readers some idea 

 of judging for themselves how important and valuable a book this is, we subjoin a 

 few extracts accompanied with woodcuts, which the author has obligingly furnished 

 us with : — 



PLANT DECORATION OF APARTMENTS. 



" Merely displaying a few popular or showy subjects is not plant decoration in 

 any high sense ! Rooms are often overcrowded with ornaments, many of them 

 exact representations of natural objects ; but in the case of the plants we may, 

 without inconvenience, enjoy and preserve the living natural objects themselves. 

 Those we employ for this purpose now are mostly of a fleeting character, and such 

 as cannot be preserved in health for any length of time in living rooms. But if, in 

 addition to the best of these, we select handsome-leaved plants of a leathery texture, 

 accustomed to withstand the fierce heats of hot countries, we shall find that the dry 

 and dusty air of a living room is not at all injurious to them, and that it is quite 

 easy to keep them in health for months, and even for years, in the same apartments. 

 They would speak to us of many distant lands ; interest us by their growth under 

 our care ; teach us the wonderful variety and riches of the vegetable kingdom, and 

 prove themselves quiet, unobtrusive friends. Many of them are exotics that in this 

 country are rarely seen out of stoves, while about Paris they are sold in abundance 

 for the decoration of apartments. The demand for use in private houses gives rise 

 to a large and special branch of trade in many of the nurseries, and I know one 

 Versailles cultivator who annually raises and sells 5000 or 6000 plants of the bright- 

 leaved Dracasna terminalis alone, and by far the greater part for room decoration. 



" As compared with the plant decorations of one of the balls at the Hotel de 



* Murrav. 



