284 Notes and Recollections of a Tour. 



pleted, when its publication wasi stopped, and it forms one of 

 the most valuable works to the amateur. 



Fromont is laid out in the English style, and the taste dis- 

 played is highly creditable to the proprietor. M. Soulange Bo- 

 din, to use the language of Mr. Loudon, is at once a " skilful 

 cultivator, a marchand grenatier (seedsman), a scholar, and an 

 accomplished gentleman." In his younger days he was at- 

 tached to the army, and travelled all over Europe ; he after- 

 wards had the charge of the gardens of the Empress Jose- 

 phine, at Malmaison; and about 1814, retired to his present 

 situation, and commenced the formation of the nursery and 

 Institute, intending to combine science with picturesque beau- 

 ty. Since its establishment the proprietor informed us he had 

 laid out tiDO milUon francs ^ in improvements upon his grounds. 



The entrance is through a long and winding avenue of ev- 

 ergreens and forest trees, disposed in picturesque groups, ad- 

 mitting of no view, until it opens upon a broad and beau- 

 tiful lawn, sloping away from the Chateau, and backed 

 by plantations of lofty trees. 



Formerly the nursery contained all kinds of trees, both 

 hardy and tender, and a general collection of every thing 

 wanted in such an establishment ; but the care attendant 

 upon so extensive a place was too much for the health of M. 

 Bodin, now upwards of seventy years of age, and he has 

 given up many of the departments, devoting his attention 

 principally to camellias, azaleas, (both hardy and tender), 

 magnolias, rhododendrons and other American plants, pseo- 

 nies, choice herbaceous plants, and a general variety of new 

 and rare exotics. Fromont is famous for its camellias, which 

 are multiplied in great quantities by herbaceous grafting, a 

 mode first adopted by the proprietor at this establishment, 

 but now in general use on the Continent; the facility and rap- 

 idity with which they are increased, and the consequent mod- 

 erate price of the plants, has been the means of disseminating 

 thousands of camellias from France to all parts of Europe 

 and the United States. 



The plants were now all out in the open air in various 

 parts of the grounds, disposed in places made for the purpose, 

 where they are sheltered from high winds and the rays of the 

 sun. These places are formed of hedges of the beech, or 



