412 THE PAEKS AND GARDENS OF PAEIS. [Chap. XXIV. 



excellent kinds are as liardy and easily grown as the Blackberries 

 and Sloes of the hedges. For the purposes herein suggested 

 thoroughly hardy and free-growing sorts should alone be selected; 

 but it must not be supposed that first-class fruit, even of the 

 continental varieties, cannot be produced in this way. In the 

 gardens at Oak Lodge, Kensington, is a very large and handsome 

 Pear-tree growing among Ehododendrons and other choice shrubs 

 which adorn the margin of a piece of rock-bound water. It is a 

 fine old tree of the Beurre Diel, which, without pruning or 

 attention of any kind, produces abundantly such good fruit, that, 

 of twelve samples of the same variety laid before the Fruit 

 Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, the fruit of this 

 tree was pronounced the best. This is not mentioned as a 

 remarkable instance, but merely to prove that the finest Pears 

 may be grown by the simplest means, and that the tree is worth 

 cultivating for its beauty alone. The garden of Oak Lodge is 

 the best-designed town-garden in London, and Mr. Marnock, who 

 arranged it, left several of these old Pears in conspicuous positions 

 when laying out the place solely for their beauty as trees, apart 

 from their fruiting qualities. Therefore it is clear that we may 

 efi'ect considerable improvement by planting this tree in shrub- 

 beries, pleasure-grounds, and like positions, and in many wild 

 and semi-wild places, both in enclosed private grounds and in the 

 open country. There can be no doubt that enormous quantities 

 of good fruit could be grown upon railway-banks now useless, and 

 from which fruit could be so readily conveyed to market ; on this 

 point, however, we shall have more to say by-and-by. 



The accompanying illustration shows a type of fruit-garden 

 common enough in and near Paris, and which deserves the atten- 

 tion of all interested in the improvement of small properties. A 

 mere sj)ot of ground is planted with carefully-selected and choice 

 fruit-trees well trained, and the result is, even from an ornamental 

 point of view, better than it often is where subjects are planted 

 that have only beauty to recommend them. The view is from a 

 sketch taken in winter by M. Franfois Courtin, of a small garden 

 facing the street leading from Yincennes to Montreuil. Beneath 

 the trees Pansies, Pinks, and other hardy flowers grow: the 

 presence of the trees does not prevent the little garden being 

 made gay with flowers. In winter, the graceful pyramidal Pear- 



