40 HISTORY OF GARDENING. PART I. 



The subsequent history and description of this garden, at different epochs, are given by Adanson, Jussieu, 

 and Thouin. It was visited by Sir J. E. Smith, in 1786, who observes that, " it used, in summer, to be the 

 evening walk of literary people, and even of persons of fashion ; and was, besides, frequented all day long 

 by students of both sexes. Here ladies might be seen at close study dissecting flowers, and reading their 

 descriptions ; nor is it at all unusual, at Paris, for the fair sex to attend scientific lectures in considerable 

 numbers. The collection of plants is generally reckoned inferior to that of Kew ; it contains, however, 

 many plants not in England, mostly from Peru and the Levant." The garden has been greatly enlarged 

 and much improved since 1786, and now includes departments which may be considered, as far as vegetables 

 are concerned, schools of horticulture, planting, agriculture, medicine, and general economy. It contains 

 some fine old exotics, sugar-canes from which a loaf of sugar was made and presented to the Empress 

 Josephine, a munificent patroness of gardens, and a few palms which belonged to Francis I. In different 

 volumes of the Annales du Musee, may be seen plans and descriptions of the garden, with the modes of 

 instruction pursued by Professor Thouin. There can be no question of its being the most scientific and 

 best kept garden in Europe, and an admirable horticultural and botanical school ; and in our opinion, 

 the Chevalier Thouin, its director, and the professor of rural economy, has an equal claim to superiority 

 as a scientific gardener. 



The botanic garden of the Trianon, according to Deleuze, was established by Louis XV. at the suggestion 

 of the Duke de Noailles, for the display of exotic trees, and a general collection of plants, for the amusement 

 of the royal family. Here B. de Jussieu disposed, for the first time, the plants in the order of natural 

 families. The botanic department of this garden is at present in a state of neglect. 



The flower-garden of Malmaison in the time of Josephine was among the richest in Europe. Various 

 botanical collectors were patronised, some jointly with Lee of Hammersmith. The seeds brought home 

 by the navigator, Baudin, were here first raised and described by Ventenat in the Jardin de la Mal- 

 maison, in 1803. In 1813 Bonpland published the first volume of Plantes rares cultivees a Malmaison, 

 which ruined him, and compelled him to seek an asylum in America. This garden, though comparatively 

 neglected, contains some fine exotic trees as standards in the open ground, and protected in winter by 

 moveable houses. Among these are Magnolia grandijiora and an orange-tree as large as they grow in 

 Spain. In the hot-houses are many fine exotics, and the original bulb of that splendid plant, Brunsvigia 

 Josephince, which in 1817 measured two feet and a half in circumference, and produced a head of flowers 

 three feet and a half diameter. The hot-house here contains a rack-work covered with exotics and 

 watered by a concealed pipe. (Hort. Tour, 403.) 



There are various botanic gardens established in the provinces of France, which maintain a regular corre- 

 spondence with that of Earis as the common centre. Each of these gardens, has, as it were, the care of the 

 botany and horticulture (for these are not separated) of a certain district, and when any new or valuable 

 plant is increased in the Paris garden, it is immediately distributed among the provincial gardens, to be by 

 them cultivated and increased, and distributed among the nurserymen and practical gardeners. Since 

 1813, those provincial gardens have suffered for want of funds ; and most of them are but indifferently 

 kept up. We could not help being struck with this in viewing the very well contrived new garden a"t 

 Marseilles, almost without plants. The richest provincial garden for its size, and the best in order, after- 

 that of Paris, appeared to us (in 1819) to be that of Toulon. That of Rouen contains the original plant of 

 the hybrid lilac (Syringa Rothomagensis'), named Varin, after the gardener who, about 1787, raised it 

 from seed. 



Herb or physic gardens are more common in France than in Britain. Plants form a much more important 

 part of the Materia Medica of the hospitals and French physicians, than in this country, and their use is 

 very popular among the lower orders. The herbarists of Paris occupy a particular lane, where they offer 

 great variety of dried plants for sale. 



SUBSECT. 3. French Gardening, in reject to its horticultural Productions. 



184. T/ie hardy fruits of France only exceed those of Britain by the olive, the fig, the 

 jujube, pomegranate, and a few others little cultivated. Nature, Professor Thouin ob- 

 serves, (Essai sur f Exposition, $c. de Ve'conomie rurale, p. 55.) has only given to France, 

 the acorn, the chestnut, the pear, the wild apple, and some other inferior fruits. Every 

 thing else which M r e have, agreeable or useful, is the product of foreign climates, and we 

 owe them in great part to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and Saracens. 

 The less ancient acquisitions are those of the crusades, or of accidental travellers. The 

 vine, the peach, the fig, the mulberry, the cherry, and the olive, were doubtless intro- 

 duced to France by the Romans ; the orange by the Italians ; and the pine-apple by the* 

 Dutch. Apples, pears, and plums, are the fruits recommended for cultivation by 

 Charlemagne, in his Capit. de VUlis et Curtis, &c. prepared about the end of the eighth 

 century, and referred to by Montesquieu, as a chef-d'oeuvre of prudence, good adminis- 

 tration, and economy. The Abbe" Schmidt informs us, (Mag. Encyc.) that this 

 monarch, who had domains in every part of France, gave the greatest encouragement to 

 the eradication of forests, and the substitution of orchards and vineyards. He was on 

 terms of intimate friendship with the Saracenic prince, Haroun al Raschild, and by that 

 means procured for France the best sorts of pulse, melons, peaches, tigs, and other fruits, 

 He desires that fennel, rosemary, sage, rue, wormwood, and above sixty other pot-herbs 

 and medicinal plants, should be cultivated : one of these which he calls anthyllis (thought 

 to be the house-leek) was to be planted before the gardener's house, probably as being 

 vulnerary. 



185. Early in the sixteenth century, it would appear they had at that time all the 

 fruits now in use, excepting the pine-apple. (Oliv. de Serres, and Steph. and Lieb.) Some 

 remarks on the state of horticulture at the end of this century are given by Benard 

 (Mem. de la Soc. A gr. du Seine et Oise, 1801,) and L. Deslongchamps. (Bon Jar d. 

 1817-18.) Blaikie (169, 170.) informs us, that about 1779 only three sorts of melons 

 were grown in France, the netted or Maraiche, and two large sorts of poor flavor. 

 Blaikie introduced the cantaleupes, which are now the prevailing sorts. The pine-apple 

 has never been successfully cultivated in France, it becomes sickly from exhalation, 

 and produces small fruit as in Italy. (99.) But France excels all other countries in 

 pears and plums, and produces excellent peaches. 



186. The culinary vegetables of France have not been increased from the earliest 



