1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



203 



promenades and places of amusement, are foreign- 

 ers from all parts of the world. They come here 

 to spend their money, and the French people are 

 most industriously at work catering for their tastes 

 and pleasures. I do not mean to say that Paris- 

 ians themselves are exempt from idlers, vain and 

 dissolute as can be found elsewhere. How could it 

 be otherwise in a city with about a million and a 

 haff of inhabitants suftering from an incessant influx 

 of the more dissipated class of persons from every 

 country on the globe. It cnly strikes me as a sort 

 of miracle that so much good order, quiet and deco- 

 rum, public and private, can exist under such a state 

 of tilings. During all the time I have passed here 

 I have heard of no pockets being picked — I have 

 seen no street fights, no collisions between drivers 

 of public conveyances on their narrow thronged 

 streets; I have seen no drunkards or beggars in the 

 streets, and but one person taken along to the watch 

 house for an attempted theft. Yet goods of all sorts 

 are strewed about the doors and windows, outside 

 in the greatest profusion, as if to tempt and trap the 

 evil disposed. Most of the clubs and secret political 

 organizations are headed by vagabond radicals from 

 other countries who have had to lly their own homes 

 for political or other crimes. The other day a club 

 was broken up by the police, and it was ascertained 

 that very few wer« Parisians, and they were only the 

 dupes of the other designing knaves who were filch- 

 ing a sort of contraband living out of their earnings. 

 Yet we are apt to throw all these things on the 

 Frenchmens' shoulders. But it is not only idlers 

 and pleasure-seekers that flock to Paris. It is 

 equally the resort of literary and scientific men of all 

 countries, of students in every profession, theology, 

 medicine, surgery, music, painting, Sic. It is the re- 

 sort of merchants from all countries, who come to 

 purchase ail the more elegant articles that embellish 

 life. Even the members of our own humble profes- 

 sion cannot alFord to stay away. On my ramble I 

 have met with the most renowned English cultivators 

 making their annual tour among the unrivalled Rose 

 Gardens of France, to select new varieties, and pick 

 up new hints upon culture, as I am doing. The 

 truth is, in all the arts of life that depend upon taste, 

 as well as in all the higher departments of science, 

 France, (Paris, if you please,) is the head quar- 

 ters. I cannot begin to describe the multitude of 

 interesting public objects to any satisfactory extent ; 

 bjt I will name over a few of those in which I feel 

 the greatest interest. 



In the first place, the public gardens — my taste 

 runs, as you know, in that direction, and I therefore 

 give them the precedence in my notice. The most 

 complete is the Jardin des Plantes, (the Garden of 

 Plants,) one of the most useful and best conducted of 

 the kind in the world. Here the student of nature, 

 whether in the department of animal, vegetable, or 

 mineral, finds a field for weeks or even months of 

 examination. The department of culinary vege- 

 tables contains carefully arranged, labelled, and cul- 

 tivated in the best manner, all the varieties of the 

 difl:erent vegetables. For instance, there are beds of 

 lettuce, of cabbage, of carrots, of beets, of onions, of 

 turneps, &.c., with 10, 15 or 20, and may be more var- 

 ieties of each. Here the market gardeners come to 

 study the character and qualities of each, and ascer- 

 tain what will best suit their particular purposes. 

 Next we come to Medicinal plants, an assemblage of 

 all the most important species used for medicinal 



purposes. Again, we come to the grasses, where we 

 have a complete collection of all species tiiat can be 

 of service to the agriculturist under any circumstan- 

 ces. Further in we come to a flower garden, where 

 all sorts of flowers suitable for the embellishment of 

 of gardens are tested and grown. In one department 

 annuals, in another biennials and perennials, and in 

 another bulbs and so on. Leaving the plants, we 

 come to the arboretum, a collection^of all the finer 

 species of evergreens atid deciduous trees that are 

 suitable for this climate in the open air. Here we 

 find magnificient specimens of cedar of Lebanon, and 

 in fact all the more rare and beautiful trees. Now 

 we have come upon the Fruil Garden, a collection of 

 the most beautiful fruit trees that exist in the world. 

 The pear trees especially are now everywhere 

 spoken of. They are trained as pyramids, chiefly, 

 and the most critical eye cannot discover a Reniish 

 in their symmetry. Mr, Cappe, the conductor of 

 this department, is a plain old gardener, but highly 

 intelligent and skillful, as liis work shows, lie l.ves 

 in a snug cottage within his own department, and 

 has occupied his present situation for 15 years. He 

 was formerly a private gardener of a gentleman in 

 the interior. He has now a son about 20 years of 

 age, who bids fair to be an equally skillful arboricul- 

 turist with his father. He partakes of his enthusi- 

 asm and already evinces a pretty thorough knowl- 

 edge of culture. I spent a few hours with them 

 very pleasantly. By the way, this reminds me of 

 Mr. DowxiNGr's statement in regard to the Louise 

 Bonne de Jcrssi/ and Louise Bonne d'Avranche. — 

 If I remember righ^, Mr, D. said he saw these side 

 by side, and that they were different. I thought at 

 the time that he was mistaken, and I believe I said 

 so in the Farmer. I asked Mr. Cappe to shov/ me 

 the trees, but he told me that they were identical in 

 all places. He pointed out to me the Louise de 

 Prusse and Louise Bonne de Jersey gvoy/nvg contio-- 

 uous to one another, but they are quite distfnct. 



From the fruit department we go to the green and 

 hot houses. Here we see some magnificent palms 

 and other rare, curious, and beautiful species. The 

 conductor of this beautiful department is Mr, New- 

 man, an accomplished cultivator, and besides, the 

 largest gardener I have happened to meet ; I should 

 think he would weigh full 300 lbs. It is quite 

 enough for him to see the ground without reaching 

 it. I mention this because it is a rarity for men 

 whose occupations are so active, to attain such a 

 corpulency. Besides all these departments there is 

 the Menagerie, a very extensive collection of living 

 animals of almost every species, all inclosed in sepa- 

 rate apartments, where they enjoy the open air under 

 circumstances best adapted to their nature. This is 

 the favorite department with the great bulk of vis- 

 itors who frequent the garden. At all hours of the 

 da}^, the monkeys in their great iron cage are out 

 yelling and performing their amusing pranks to a 

 large audience. So are the elephants and bears. 

 The collection of wild and domestic fowls is very 

 large and interesting. Every part of the world has 

 sent a contribution. Then from the living specimens 

 we may enter the cabinet of comparative anatomy. 

 Here we can study the forms and structures of all 

 sorts of anim.als of the various races of human as 

 well as of the brute species. This collection com- 

 prises over 15,000 anatomical preparations, all ar- 

 ranged and classed in 14 or 15 different apartments. 

 This is considered the richest collection in Europe. 



