96 THE TARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. VI. 



the end of a stick, may be shown to best advantage, its foliage 

 springing from the turf. 



Usually in geometrical gardens the portion nearest the building 

 is a terrace commanding the surroundings — here, on the contrary, 

 the part nearest the palace is a basin flanked by balustraded 

 terraces. The grass banks that rise from the lower garden to the 

 balustrade are not left naked, but planted with two lines of dwarf 

 Kose-bushes. There seems no reason why such spots should be left 

 bare. Continuous borders, not beds, run round the plots of grass in 

 the flower-garden here, and from spring to the end of autumn these 

 are never flowerless. The system adopted is one of " bedding " 

 plants and herbaceous j)lants mixed, but all are changed every 

 year. A spring flower this week is replaced by a summer flower- 

 ing plant next week, and so on as the season requires. Stocks of 

 plants are always kept on hand to carry this system out, and the 

 placing of the herbaceous plants into fresh ground every year 

 causes them to flower as freely as the tender bedding plants. 



But these borders also contain permanent bushes — Lilacs, Eoses, 

 &c., which give a line of verdure throughout the centre, and 

 prevent it from being overdone with flowers. Among these 

 woody plants are others very sweet for many weeks through the 

 better part of the season. These are low standard bushes of the 

 common Honeysuckle. Alternating between a Eose and a Lilac, or 

 other bush, and throwing down a head of flowering shoots, few 

 exotic subjects are more welcome in the flower-garden than these 

 Honeysuckle-standards. There are also mixed beds of Ferns in 

 the open air, isolated specimens of Tree-ferns and graceful Wood- 

 wardias elevated on moss-covered stands, which add a touch of 

 novelty to the garden as compared with others in Paris. 



Many large trees — Planes and Chestnuts — have been moved in 

 full leaf in this garden in midsummer. They are taken up with 

 great " balls " of earth, by powerful machinery, and very success- 

 fully ; but though it may be very desirable in Paris to move 

 common trees of large size to complete and re-arrange straight 

 avenues here and there, the plan, generally, is not worth the expense. 



Before the alterations that took place here some years ago there 

 was a good botanic garden, an irregular sort of English garden, 

 which the French call the " never-to-be-forgotten nursery," 

 and many matters of interest now passed away. The garden used 



