THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS. BOTANY. 399 



3. THE GARDENS OF THE PALACES. There are magnificent 

 flower gardens likewise connected with the national buildings or 

 palaces in Paris and its vicinity, which, with a liberality that 

 eminently characterizes the French in all their public establish 

 ments, are open to the public for study, for pleasure, and for 

 recreation ; and in pleasant weather are crowded with persons 

 who appreciate and enjoy them. In most of these gardens, the 

 scientific as well as the familiar name is attached to the plant, 

 together with the class to which it belongs, and the country of 

 which it is a native. The gardens attached to the palaces of 

 Versailles and St. Cloud, and more distant at Fontainbleau, are 

 among the great sights of France. They exhibit the most splen 

 did triumphs of genius, skill, and taste, in rendering, as far as 

 these can do it, the beauties of nature even more beautiful, the 

 magnificence of nature even more magnificent; and seem, in 

 their shady avenues and their green lawns, their superb trees 

 and their flowers of superlative beauty, in their statues exhibiting 

 the triumphs of the sculptor s art, an art all but divine; and 

 in their splendid fountains, combining, with the most extraordi 

 nary brilliancy, what is most exquisite in design and graceful in 

 motion, to rival, if not to surpass, the splendid and poetical 

 descriptions of the golden age. 



4. RURAL EMBELLISHMENTS IN FRANCE, HOLLAND, BELGIUM, 

 GERMANY, AND ITALY. The country in France is very far from 

 being as picturesque and beautiful as that of a great part of Eng 

 land. The deep verdure of England, owing to the constant 

 humidity of its climate, and somewhat to the character of its 

 soil, which is adapted to retain the moisture, is not to be looked 

 for in France, where the soil is to a great extent calcareous, and 

 where the droughts of summer are often long and severe. I 

 have already remarked likewise that the villages in France \vear 

 by no means a rural aspect. But France is not without its beau 

 tiful country-houses and villas, presenting often, in their con 

 struction and adornment, examples of almost unsurpassed taste : 

 and none of them without the charming embellishments of parks 

 and gardens, lawns and fountains, shrubs and flowers. Some of 

 the best farms which I have visited, farms of several hundred 

 acres in extent, have not been without some of these delightful 

 appendages. 



