490 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXIX. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



SOME VEGETABLES OF THE PARIS MARKET. 



A VISIT to the markets of Paris is sufficient to interest many in 

 the vegetable culture of that capital. There is so much difference 

 in the supplies to that market and the London one that there is 

 much to be learnt on both sides. That so great a diiference 

 should exist in the market-produce of cities so near each other 

 is remarkable. The Parisians make as much use of the Seakale 

 or Ehubarb as we in England do of the Breadfruit-tree ; and 

 one who leaves London in a hot and dry July, having failed to get 

 a salad at dinner, arrives in Paris next morning, and finds the 

 markets full of every variety of salading as tender as if the 

 climate were a perpetual May. Although abundant intercourse 

 has long existed between the two countries, yet from the fact 

 that the visitors are rarely men capable of appreciating differ- 

 ences and their value and causes, and the difficulty of getting 

 information about the subjects, noticeable improvements have 

 not been exchanged from side to side. 



The Carrots of the Paris Market. — ^Every visitor to the 

 Halles of Paris or the streets near them during the earlier hours 

 of the day, must have noticed vast quantities of dwarf, tender 

 little Carrots. These indeed, sent from Paris, are seen in many 

 other cities. They are always fresh, always to be had, and 

 contain none of the tissue which makes the coarser Carrots so 

 much less valuable. Even when we do grow the best varieties 

 of dwarf Carrots in this country, they never present the cleanly 

 appearance of those of the Paris market-gardens, nor are they so 

 tender and good. The French, who are difficult to please in 

 respect to this vegetable, never make use of field varieties for 



