Chap. 1.] 



'IIIK BOIS 1)E BOULOGNE. 



11 



tlie large white Chinese Magnolia (M. conspicua), and other early- 

 flowering shrubs. The attractive Chinese, Japanese, and Ghent 

 Azaleas, and the Rhododendrons, are, of course, admirable for such 

 positions ; but there is a peculiar fitness in placing the very early- 

 flowering shrubs on these well-carpeted green banks, where the 

 surroundings are not so winterly as they are often needlessly 

 made in gardens. 



There is one feature in the Bois de Boulogne wliich cannot be 

 too much condemned — the practice of laying down here and there 

 on some of its freshest sweeps of sloping grass enormous beds con- 

 taining one kind of flower only. In several instances, near the 

 plantations on the islands, may be seen huiulreds of one kind of 

 tender plant in a great unmeaning mass, just in the positions 

 where the turf ought to have been left free for a little rci)ose. 

 This is done to secure a sensational cllcct, but its onlv result is to 



