534 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXXII. 



caps is not, in consequence, wholly lost, may find much to 

 interest ns here. Many who see this market in perfection in 

 summer and autumn do not know it in early spring. The bitter 

 cold of the early spring morning has no noticeable effect in 

 reducing the numbers who usually throng the market, though it 

 certainly must mar their comfort. The large extent of the Great 

 Hall, however, saves them from such drenchings as the people 

 sufi'er in Covent Garden on a wet morning. The piles of Mush- 

 rooms are among the most interesting of the things to be seen.. 

 These are thrown out on wide benches, and heaped up as any 

 common roots might be. As to quality, these Mushrooms are 

 excellent indeed ; nearly round, on an average about the size of a 

 Horse Chestnut, perfectly white, fresh and delicate in texture and 

 flavour, they look as if each was selected by an epicure from the 

 myriads often seen on a hill-pasture on an autumn morning. These 

 Mushrooms all come from the depths of the old stone-mines 

 beneath Paris and its environs. Almost equally round, and 

 chubby, and tender, are the little Carrots. Piles of large Pumpkins 

 strew the ground ; these have been kept through the winter, and 

 form, when green vegetables are scarce, an important article of 

 food. 



In the United States, long-keeping Gourds are quite as im- 

 portant a crop as the Turnip is with us, if not more so. It would, 

 therefore, seem desirable that their value should be better known in 

 England, where they are as easily grown as the Vegetable Marrow, 

 the only Gourd now popular with us. As compared with the 

 large Gourd of the Paris market and the best Squashes of the 

 Americans, the Vegetable Marrow is of little importance as a food- 

 supply. The common garden Turnips are seen here, but are not 

 so abundant as the Navet, which many think better, and which 

 is pretty regularly supplied to Covent Garden from the Paris 

 gardens. But there is another curious Turuij) here — the Navet 

 de Meaux. This is a singlar-looking kind, usually more than a 

 foot long, frequently curled in form, and only as thick as a 

 Cucumber. These are sent to market in a peculiar manner. The 

 top is cut clean ofi*, a hole pierced an inch below the cut, through 

 which a few straws are passed, which permit of a dozen roots or so 

 being strung in a bundle together. These Turnips remind one of 

 the huge white Piadishes that are seen iu the Chinese quarter of 



