240 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



less extent, but in the foregoing list, it will be found the leading concerns have 

 been fairly accurately summarized. 



The best time to visit Grasse is, of course, in advanced spring, as the May 

 month. Then all is an undulating forest of flowers, the air is filled with thou- 

 sands of fragrant odors. A three weeks' sojourn, spent during the spring time, 

 in this country, will never be forgotten. While there, one should get out and 

 about so much as possible ; take evening walks along the well-kept lanes crossing 

 the flower reserves, when the sweet perfumes are most sensitive to and appre- 

 ciated by the sense. The visitor should never make the ignorant mistake of 

 sleeping with closed windows : leave them wide open all night and half open 

 during wet or damp nights. Take no notice of those silly know-nothings who say 

 the nocturnal air is " dangerous." 



Being situate on a gentle slope of an offshoot of the Maritime-Alps, the view 

 of Grasse and vicinity is of the most picturesque. It offers the, apparently, most 

 changing, and charming prospects. With every hundred meters the tourist gets 

 higher up on the hills above the town, a magnificent view is had of the ville, 

 with its numerous important and busy perfumery manufacturies, surrounded on 

 all sides by flower-clad lands, a smiling valley at foot, and another range of hills 

 closing the view to the sea. 



It is a very pretty sight, that of seeing the harvesting (so to write) of the 

 flowers for the distiller. The flowers are brought into sheds, heaped on long 

 tables, and every grade of poor woman-kind set to work sorting them. They are 

 so scantily paid that they can barely exist. Their employers verily exploit and 

 sweat them. Old and young women, little boys and girls — all are at it earning 

 a miserable pittance. On following the car-loads of flowers into the distilleries, 

 one will be pleased with the first sense of the all-pervading perfumes. But 

 getting right inside and into the deposits, it becomes too much of a good thing ; 

 the odor becomes so strong and rank as to lose its fineness to the sensitive 

 rasal nerve, and becomes nothing more than a strong, almost nauseous smell, 

 permeating everything damp — even your moistened handkerchief, although you 

 may not have taken it from your pocket. 



Many beautiful private gardens will be found in the Grasse district. The 

 natives being naturally skilful horticulturists, they make their gardens models of 

 good culture and work. Some excellent photos of these and other views were 

 obtained of the photographer on the route de Vence, F. Busin. 



For the verification of a few forgotten names of Grasse flower-people and 

 makers of perfumery, the writer acknowledges his indebtedness to the yearly 

 publication of rue Clotilde i. Nice, known as " 1' Annuaire des Alpes-Maritimes." 

 Some of the persons spoken with, and whose names have been herein 

 mentioned, on learning that the details being inquired after were possibly for 

 publication in a foreign professional periodical, expressed the pleasure they 

 would have in receiving direct a copy of the journal containing this account, and 



