84 Notice of the Garden of Fromont. 
In the extensive heath grounds have been collected all the fami- 
lies of vegetables, that are designated in cultivation under the gen- 
eral name of heath plants. ‘These grounds have been laid out for 
their protection, and, at the north, some large masses of trees are 
destined to serve for their shelter, and the surplus waters from the 
higher grounds are conveniently distributed by means of tubes, 
cocks, streamlets and gutters, moistening the ground, so to speak, 
drop by drop, and preserving it, almost without the aid of manual 
sprinkling, in a state of constant freshness. It is in this factitious 
soil, entirely formed by art, and whose surface is estimated at about 
three acres, that the magnolias, azaleas, andromedas, and the differ- 
ent rosaceous plants will hereafter flourish ; indeed, they already af- 
ford a rich supply of seeds. 
Such was Fromont less than six years since, when the proprietor, 
having obtained, in the vigor of life, that leisure, which the shep- 
herd of Virgil regretted to have known so late, conceived the plan 
of making of a simple garden of pleasure a special monument con- 
secrated to the studies of horticulture and botany ; but he perceived 
that such an enterprise, in the hands of an individual, could not be 
sustained and prosper, except by its own products, and that it would 
fail essentially, unless industry should come in, with all its activity, 
to the aid of science, which might, in its turn, contribute to the pros 
perity of the former. An establishment of industry was therefore 
immediately founded, not as an end but a means, as the most solid 
and necessary basis of that edifice, the future elevation of which 
could not be determined, and the profitable cultivation of duplicates 
without number, is becoming the honorable means and the best guar- 
anty of the indefinite extension of the scientific collections. 
Greenhouses-were constructed. Their arrangement is such that 
they present, in some measure, by their extent, their conveniences 
and their connection, the appearance of a hamlet, whose roofs are 
all glazed. ‘Their length is about two thousand feet; and they pre- 
sent all the varieties of exposure, that renders them proper for every 
kind of culture. Water is brought into them by leaden pipes, and 
distributed by cocks, that pour it into some reservoirs in stone, it 
lead and in zinc, placed in each greenhouse, in such a manner that 
it may be made to flow in one of the divisions only or in all the divis- 
ions at once. In this way it may be ‘readily made to suit the tem- 
perature of each greenhouse. 
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