56 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. Ill- 



the full expression of their beauty in the various ways in which 

 they might he used. 



The principles on which vegetation is arranged to express the 

 highest amount of beauty and give the greatest charm having 

 been settled from the beginning of the world, no professor should 

 be allowed to plant it to illustrate his notion of classification. 

 The place for his work, it cannot be too clearly understood, is the 

 herbarium or the museum. Such a garden should illustrate the 

 flora of France nobly and naturally, as far as possible without 

 burying it under a nightmare of long names ; it should have open 

 lawns, if only to let people see the beauty of the many treasures 

 of the garden at varying distances, though there are many other 

 reasons ; it should have few glass houses, and these not in 

 prominent positions. Those who are really interested in tropical 

 vegetation can now see it in a few weeks, whereas a few generations 

 ago it was problematical if it could be seen at all. Even those who 

 imagine they can illustrate the vegetation of the tropics in a 

 glass shed will probably admit that we had better leave the 

 building of the glass sheds till we have done justice to the treasures 

 of the vegetable kingdom hardy in our climate, and which 

 we may arrange under the dome of the sky. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that it should not be a place for exhibiting 

 geometrical tracings on the ground, and various other and 

 more costly puerilities of which gardens are frequently made the 

 scene, 



"We have nothing in England like the Garden of Plants — half 

 zoological, half botanical, and nearly surrounded by museums 

 containing vast zoological, botanical, and mineralogical collec- 

 tions. The portion entirely devoted to botany is laid out in the 

 straight, regular style, while other parts have winding walks, 

 and some trifling diversity here and there. The place is really 

 an important school of botany, and as such it is useful, 

 though with nothing to charm. Here Buffbu, Cuvier, Jussieu, 

 and other great men have worked; and here at the present 

 day, even in minor departments, are many men of well-known 

 ability. 



Although the Garden of Plants is qnito inferior in point of 

 beauty to any of our large British botanic gardens, it contains 

 some features which might be introduced into them with advau- 



