THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[October, 



changes in any one place, another kind of tree 

 will then favor the conditions better than the one ' 

 which formerly filled the post of assistant to na- 

 ture. Now climates must of necessity change, 

 and the climate of Great Britain cannot possibly 

 be the same as it was when the Druids cut the 

 Mistletoe from the Oak trees ; and with the ch- 

 matic change there will naturally be a change of 

 tree by the Mistletoe to suit the new conditions. 



Change in an African Marigold. — Mr. A. 

 Blanc says : " I send you two flowers of a Mari- 

 gold, both taken from one plant. You will notice 

 that one is single and the other perfectly double. I 

 This plant produced nothing but single flowers at 



first, but now a number of fine double ones are 

 appearing. This shows how seedsmen are often 

 blamed unjustly for imposing on people, for in 

 this case 1 gathered the seed myself from perfectly 

 double flowers sent to me by Messrs. Hallock, Son 

 & Thorpe to engrave. Perhaps the seed not hav- 

 ing matured on the plant, may account for it." 



[This is certainly very curious; the single 

 straw color, and the double orange, on the same 

 plant. But we do not know how far this may ex- 

 cuse some complaints. If we planted seeds of the 

 double orange and half the seedlings came single 

 straw color, we should be apt to suspect a mixture 

 of seeds for all this experience. — Ed. G. M.J 



Literature, Travels and Personal Notes. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



LETTER FROM PARIS. 



BY M. H. LESTER. 



Before I left Antwerp I visited the flower 

 market. It is held under the trees in the Public 

 Square, and the plants were chiefly of what we 

 should know as of the bedding class. The Lo- 

 belia and Heliotrope seemed of a darker blue than 

 ours ; the flowers of the Roses larger, and dwarf 

 Dahlias and Asters more floriferous. I made a 

 running visit to Ostend, Ghent and Brussels. 

 The king of the Belgians has his beautiful grounds 

 here. He is passionately fond of gardening, and 

 will no doubt regret that he was absent when an 

 American sovereign, such as your correspondent, 

 called on him. It takes twelve hours from Ant- 

 werp, but most of this time seems taken up in 

 changing cars. Car fare is cheaper for the person, 

 but they get even with the American rate if the 

 poor fellow has any baggage. 



Well, Paris and its fashions! Every body asks 

 about them. It is the ladies themselves, not their 

 dresses. A coffee sack on a French lady would 

 look as well as a dress by Worth on the lady of 

 any other country. The substantial character of 

 the buildings impresses one in Paris. They look 

 as if built to defy time and stand forever, and 

 statuary, real representatives of famous people, 

 meet the gaze everywhere. The streets come to- 

 gether into three, four or five points so often, that 

 one can easily get lost, and are so cleanly kept 



that crossing stones are never thought of. Flower 

 stores are in every block, but there is a strange 

 sameness in the pot plants, Euonymus, Pandanus, 

 Fuchsias, Ficus elastica. Asters or Marguerites as 

 they call them, Geraniums, Gloxinias, Heliotropes, 

 Roses and Mignonettes comprise the bulk of what 

 one finds in any one of them. The old summer 

 Rose, Madame Plantier, is the most popular of any, 

 although there are large numbers of Etoile de 

 Lyon, Mermets and Neils. Cut flowers of Glad- 

 iolus and Mignonette are everywhere in abund- 

 ance. The Grand Opera House, and the Avenue 

 de I'Opera opening out from it, strike one with 

 wonder; but almost every store thinks it essential 

 to have the windows and doorways embeUished 

 by pot plants, which add immeasurably to the 

 charming scene. The military and professionals 

 of various classes, with their uniforms and robes 

 of office, worn in the streets, also add much to the 

 supposed gaiety of a Paris scene. As 1 went 

 through the opera avenue a regiment of cadets, 

 boys of not over 14, with fife and drum, made 

 things lively Fruit and vegetable stores abound. 

 Fruits are handled more carefully than with us, 

 and the "bloom" on the plums and grapes is care- 

 fully preserved; and the vegetables, carrots, rad- 

 ishes, scorzonera, artichokes and cauliflowers, they 

 keep so fresh and plump as if but a minute before 

 brought from the garden. On the foliaccous 

 vegetables it is hard to note a wilted leaf. After 

 a great deal of crossing in and out of famous 

 streets amidst cooling fountains, and the shade of 

 umbrageous sycamores, I found myself in the gar- 



