554 



THE FRUIT GARDENS NEAR PARIS. 



all other irregularities of growth appear 

 likewise to have heen. The form is very 

 ornamental ; it can be produced at little 

 expense ; and the trees were well furnished 

 with fruit buds. Suppose a tree to have 6 

 shoots, let them be tied at equal distances 

 to a hoop placed horizontally, and then 

 shortened a few inches above it, or so as to 

 leave them a foot or more in length. From 

 each of these, two shoots may be trained 

 to the outside of a somewhat wider hoop in 

 the following season ; and thus by annu- 

 ally introducing hoops of a width propor- 

 tionately corresponding with the respective 

 diameters of the vase intended to be imi- 

 tated, the desired form will ultimately be 

 produced. The head of the tree will be 

 completely balanced ; and the branches will 

 be more nearly equidistant than they could 

 be by any other mode of training as a 

 standard. I should prefer wooden hoops 

 to iron ones. If weak, or if two or more 

 pieces must be employed for the hoop, its 

 circular form may be preserved by two 

 small rods, secured diametrically across it. 

 Adjoining the fruit tree quarters there 

 is a compartment used as the Experimental 

 Garden of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of Paris. The space, however, is too lim- 

 ited for any extensive experiments being 

 undertaken ; and the backwardness of the 

 season had prevented any thing interesting 

 from being commenced. 



The Botanic Garden of the Ecole de 

 Medicine lies in a low situation ; but this 

 is doubtless an advantage in the hot dry 

 weather. The plants are disposed in straight 

 beds. 



In one of the quarters there is a collec- 

 tion of 1800 vine plants, from all the de- 

 partments. This was chiefly formed by 

 Chaptal, when Minister of the Interior, in 

 order that their nomenclature might be set- 

 tled, and their respective merits ascertained. 

 I am not aware that the original intention 

 has been fully carried out; but the vines 

 are still kept in good order. 



It may be interesting to mention, that in 

 the Gardens of the Luxembourg, and Jar- 

 din des Plantes, the best collection of fruit 

 trees in France, that of the Chartreux, was 

 preserved ; and also that from these gar- 

 dens the sorts were obtained by the society 

 when the collection was forming for the 



garden at Chiswick. This was the best 

 source whence the identical varieties de- 

 scribed by the celebrated Duhamel could 

 be obtained, as appears by a communica- 

 tion from M. Thouin, appended to a list of 

 grafts sent to the society in 1820, and of 

 which the following is a translation : 



" Various causes having prevented my 

 wonhy colleague, M. Bosc, from taking off" 

 the grafts requested for the Horticultural 

 Society of London, from the nursery of the 

 Luxembourg, he begged of me to make the 

 collection. This I undertook with the great- 

 est pleasure, as, in obliging my friend, 1 

 may also render a useful service to an 

 honorable body to which I am proud to 

 belong. 



" The society may be assured that the 

 names of the grafts precisely correspond 

 with the varieties described by DuhameS 

 (Traite des Arbres Fruitiers, Paris, 1768.) 

 The following are the means which were 

 employed, by which we are able to accom- 

 plish so important an object. 



"In 1793, when the question was agi- 

 tated of suppressing the monasteries, and 

 placing their property at the (isposal of the 

 state, foreseeing the destruction of the gar- 

 den of the Chartreux at Paris, and anxious 

 to preserve to horticulture the originals on 

 which Duhamel had established his nomen- 

 clature, I begged and obtained permission 

 from the minister Roland to remove what- 

 ever trees I pleased from the complete col- 

 lection which that garden contained. They 

 were labelled according to the Catalogue 

 of the Chartreux, and transplanted in the 

 garden of the Museum, where they were 

 arranged in such a way as to form a school 

 for the instruction of nurserymen, garden- 

 ers, country gentlemen, and even botanists 

 and physiologists. 



" The garden of the Chartreux was soon 

 after destroyed ; there remained no vestige 

 of it ; and it was not till ten or twelve 

 years after, that it was re-established in 

 the Luxembourg, by rooted plants or grafts 

 taken from our school of the Museum, in 

 the Jardin des Plantes. 



" On the formation of that school I in- 

 vited Christopher Hervy, gardener to the 

 Chartreux, a man well informed on the 

 subject of fruit trees, and who supplied 

 Duhamel with a great portion of his no- 



