l8o TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



i6. A Famous Frenchman and his Garden : 

 M. Gaston Allard of Angers. ^ 



By F. R. S. Balfour. 



Early in January the famous arboriculturist of Angers — 

 M. Allard — died at his home, La Maulevrie, aged nearly 

 80 years. The writer is almost certainly the last Englishman 

 to see him. I went to Angers for the first time last autumn 

 and little expected to see the founder of the famous garden, 

 as I knew that for several years M. Allard had been in a very 

 feeble and precarious state of health. Professor Sargent, who, 

 of course, was already well acquainted with the Allard collection 

 of trees and shrubs, had asked me to accompany him to France 

 and to Angers in August 1914, but the war broke out and put 

 an end to the project. In the early part of October 19 18, while 

 visiting M. Allard's neighbour, the Marquis de Charnace, I was 

 enabled to carry out this plan. 



I found M. Allard sitting with a friend on a seat in the 

 garden on the sunny side of his pleasant country house, and 

 after telling him I had come from Paris to see his famous trees, 

 he insisted on showing me himself the plants he knew and loved 

 so well. He was nearly blind and exceedingly frail and could 

 not speak above a whisper, but notwithstanding his weakness 

 he took me to the specimens I especially wished to see. 

 Populus eiiphratica (the " willow-tree " of the Psalms), one of the 

 few in cultivation, he pointed out as not likely to outlive him- 

 self long. A new red-flowered jasmine and Idesia polycarpa in 

 splendid fruit were the next treasures that he wished me to 

 appreciate ; in the case of the latter he had grafted the male 

 and female plants on the same stock. Of his oaks he was 

 especially proud — as well he might be, the collection being 

 a very complete one, especially of Eastern American species. 

 He showed me a Qiiercus libani bearing its large acorns 

 profusely, and insisted on my filling my pockets with them 

 as well as with the ripe fruits of a hybrid Torreya nucifera crossed 

 by himself with Torreya myristica. It was interesting and very 

 touching to see how his vigour seemed to return the farther 

 he went among his beloved trees. 



M. Allard after leaving school entered as a student the 



^ Reproduced from the Kew Bulletin, Nos. 2 and 3, 191S, by kind 

 permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. 



