22 Garden of Plants and 
Art. 1V. Some Details respecting the Garden of Plants and the 
National Museum at Paris. By Mrs. R. Lee (late Mrs. 
Bowpicn). 
Sir, 
I HAVE much pleasure in obeying your request, and sending 
you a few details concerning the Jardin du Roi in Paris, of 
which I have been an inmate during the last month. 
Lwasmuch concerned to find that the lions, panthers, &c., with 
some of which I had long been acquainted, were all dead ; and 
it is said that the plea looking building they inhabited was 
unfavourable to their nature. Animals of this kind require 
not only warmth and shelter, but society; but in these dens a 
constant current of air rushes through, and the animals are 
totally excluded from the sight of ean other. Still, however, 
there are some very fine bears of different species ; some hyae- 
nas, one of which is very gentle, and holds his head close to 
the bars to be caressed; and some wolves. Among the latter 
is one whose hair is perfectly black, and shines like floss silk. 
He was brought when very young (I could ¢ ilmost have said 
a puppy), and presented to Baron Cuvier’s daughter-in-law, 
who finding him so tame, desired he might have a dog for a 
companion, and be fed entirely on broth and eaten meat. 
Her orders have been obeyed, ‘and the animal retains all his 
gentleness and. docility ; he never sees her but he stretches 
his paws through the bars to be shaken, and when she lets 
him loose he lies down before her, licks her feet, and shows 
every mark of joy and affection. In a small room, not open to 
public view, is a curious collection of squirrels, raccons, mar- 
tens, ichneumons, and some dogs, whose monstrous birth gives 
them a place there, in order to ‘aid the researches of M. Geof- 
froy St. Hilaire. 
But the great attraction —the queen of the garden — isthe 
ture and weakly form would seem to mark it as an insect ill calculated to 
endure the inclement season appointed as its proper period of existence. 
But Nature knows her own business best : and accordingly these slender crea- 
tures brave the tempestuous weather they are doomed to encounter, totally 
regardless of the cold, the wet, the winds, and the fogs of Noy ember and 
December ; 
“‘ Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant.” 
“ These little bodies mighty souls inform!” 
Trapp’s Translation. 
Let it blow, or rain, or shine, there they are, sporting and dancing away 
under the sheltered side of banks and hedges with a resolute hardihood and 
perseverance that are truly admirable sappar rently enjoying themselves as much 
as the butterfly in the sultry sunbeams of July, 
