JUNE 157 



chateaux are as thickly strewn as castles on the Rhine, 

 and good wine flows as freely as it did for the monks 

 of Thelema or the Three Musketeers. 



There are two seasons when Touraine is at its fairest 

 early summer and mid summer. At Whitsuntide one 

 cannot expect the feast of colour, the mellow skies, 

 the animated movement of the vintage ; but in their 

 place, there are pure, cool mornings, all-pervading 

 verdure, and infinite variety of flowering trees, shrubs, 

 and herbs. Our own county councils might take a 

 leaf from the books of certain French departments and 

 communes which display good judgment in their 

 choice of wayside trees. Take, for example, the road 

 from Tours to Azay-le-Rideau, by way of Ballan. Ten 

 miles of it lie across a monotonous plateau of corn 

 and vine land ; but on each side of the road elms have 

 been planted, with a crimson horse chestnut after every 

 ninth elm. The lovely blossoms of these trees are 

 greater favourites in Touraine than the white-flowered 

 species which prevails in England; and another exquisite 

 tree is the rose-coloured Robinia, or, as we call it, 

 Acacia, which, though quite hardy in Britain, is very 

 rarely seen there. The Wistaria is past its best by the 

 end of May, but the glorious Paulonia repeats the same 

 tint and provides pyramids of delicate lavender hue, 

 deliciously scented. It is only after a mild winter like 

 last (1897-8) that this tree (which grows, but scarcely 

 flowers, in England) can furnish a display. The flower- 

 buds are put forth in autumn, and severe frost destroys 

 them. 



