332 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Society of Paris appointed liim Secretary General; 

 still later, lie was a member of the Royal and 

 Central Ji^ricultural Society, and shortly after, he 

 became its perpetual Secretary. 



In 1*<29, M. Soui.ANGE founded a horticultural 

 institution at Tromont, which Charles X. visited 

 and patronized, and to which he gave the name of 

 the Royal Horticultural institution of Fromont. 

 The dearest wishes of M. Soulange, seemed now 

 to be accomplished. He felt himself in a i)Osition 

 to give to Horticulture an impulse which he had 

 for a long lime meditated and desired. Vain hope ! 

 The events of 1><30 — the abdication and flight of 

 Charles X, and the reversals of all political and 

 social affairs, destroyed the plans and the prosper- 

 ity of the Institute, and the hopes of its founder 

 together. 



For some time afterwards the moral force of M. 

 Soulange sustained him; but his afllictions gradu- 

 ally undermined hishealth. His head, he said, was 

 always strong, but his frame sunk more and more 

 under the weight of his sorrows. He was no longer 

 able to visit his vast green-houses, nor the plants he 

 so much loved ; he could now only see from his win- 

 dow the fine groves and. the pleasing landscapes 

 that he had formed. At last M. Soulange Bodin 

 expired on the 21st July, 1846, at the age of 72 

 years, surrounded by his family and several old 

 ajid tried friends. — Poiteau, Revue Horiicole, 

 jiug. 1S46. 



The following account of Fromont and its pro- 

 prietor, from the pen of Mr. Loudon, may not be 

 out of place at this moment: 



'<M. Soulange-Bodin combines, at Fromont, an 

 elegant villa residence with an exotic nursery, 

 and an institution for young horticulturists. M. 

 Soulange-Bodin, like M. Vilmorin, is at once a 

 skilful cultivator, a m arch and grenetier (seedsman,) 

 a scholar, and an accomplished gentleman. As 

 connected with the army, he has been all over 

 Europe; and having been long, to use the Prince 

 de Ligne's phrase, under the influence of the jardi- 

 nomanie, wherever he went, the gardens were the 

 main objects of his attention. At one time he 

 had the principal management of the gardens of 

 the Empress Josephine at Malmaison. On M. Bo- 

 din's retirement to Fromont, in 1814, he commen- 

 ced laying it out in the English manner, and so as 

 to combine the picturesque scenery of the park 

 with the profitable culture of the nursery. The 

 grounds exceed a hundred acres of surface gently 

 varied, and sloping to the Seine. They a^-e sur- 

 rounded by a walk or drive, which displays varied 

 views of the interior, the main feature of which is 

 the chiteau; and of the Seine, with some rising 

 grounds, beyond the boundary. In various spaces 

 among the groups of trees, are formed beds of peat 

 earth, in which seedlings of American shrubs are 

 raised; the more rare kinds being propiagatetl by 

 artificial methods. In the walled garden near the 

 house, are numerous pits and frames, in which the 

 more yjopular exotics, such as the Orange, Camel- 

 lia, Azalea Indica, and numerous other green-house 

 and hot-house plants, are increased by hundreds. In 

 effecting this, one of the principal modes employed, 

 is herbaceous grafting, or grafting on the young 

 wood : the plants thus rai sed are sent to all countries. 



In the larger grcen-houscs and hot-lioiiMs, iticrc- i» 

 acollectioii of fine specimens, iiitendcii ])rincipally 

 for ornament. The oliiect of the institution for 

 the instruction of >(>ung gardeners jh, to supply 

 French country gentlemen with young men, well 

 acquainted wiili botli the ))ractice and the theory 

 of their art in all its branches. For this purpose 

 there arc professors, a library, a museum of imple- 

 ments and models, and a monthly journal, entitled 

 Annalcs Horiicole de Fromont. There is not a 

 more striking example in all France, of the gen- 

 tleman and the man of science being united with 

 the tradesman, than in M. Soulange-Bodin; nor a 

 villa, in which more industry and activity goes 

 hand in hand with jjicturesque beauty. There 

 is nothing of the kind that we know of in Eng- 

 land; nor can there be in the present state of 

 things. It is perhaps one of the finest moral fea- 

 tures in Fi-ance, that most gentlemen are either 

 manufacturers, trailesmen or farmers; and that 

 most of the persons practicing these professions 

 are, in their maimers, gentlemen." 



Blue-flowered Hydrangeas. — The possibil- 

 ity of changing to a blue tint the rose-colored 

 blossoms of the Hydrangea, b.\ means of a mixture 

 of iron with the s»il they grow in, ^vas announced 

 some time since, by numerous floricultural ama- 

 teurs; and we read, in the bulletin of a horticul- 

 tural society in the north of France, that a culti- 

 vator of that region had succeedetl, by this process, 

 in causing several flowers of these plants to turn 

 blue. To attain this result, it is advised that a 

 strong proportion of iron filings should be mixed 

 with bog or peat earth, or what is belter still, the 

 refuse which accumulates from the shariiening of 

 instruments on a grindstone, in which the particles 

 of iron are infinitely more attenuated than those of 

 the filings. These, and many other measures have 

 been tried in England, without any result. But 

 Mr. Paxton, from whom we borrow a portion of 

 these details, has seen, in that country, four Hy- 

 drangeas, planted in a clayey soil naturally impreg- 

 nated with iron, and moistened by a stream of 

 water, also very ferruginous, which flowed from a 

 neighboring rocky bank, some of whose blossoms 

 v/ere oi a. pure blue, without an)^ mixture of rose 

 or lilac, while other roots of H3-drangea, planted 

 about thirty feet distant, preserved their natural 

 color. No means had been used to bring about 

 this result, which was entirely due to nature. The 

 water which dropped from this rock, was slightly 

 tawny, and resembled in color the sprouted barley, 

 usually seen at breweries. It was evidently a so- 

 lution of peroxide of iron in an acid, probably 

 sulphuric acid. 



This new experiment seems to point out that 

 the changing of the Hydrangea blossoms to a blue 

 color, must be attributed to the action of iron, but 

 also that it will not act in all cases alike, and es- 

 pecially when employetl in a metallic state. No 

 doubt, some useful experiments might be made, 

 and if it were found that (he flowers of the Hydran- 

 gea could be altered or aznred, at pleasure, we nee* 

 not ilespair of obtaining the same result with other 

 and more interesting species of plants. — Naudin, 

 in Revue Horiicole. 



