84 JVotice of the Garden of Fromont. 



In the extensive heath grounds have been collected all the fami- 

 lies of vegetables, that are designated in cultivation under the gen- 

 eral name of heath plants. These grounds have been laid out for 

 their protection, and,, at the north, some targe masses of trees are 

 destined to serve for their shelter, and the surplus waters from the 

 higher grounds are conveniently distributed by means of tubes, 

 cocks, streamlets and gutters, moistening the ground,, so to speak, 

 drop by drop, . and preserving it, almost without the aid of manual 

 sprinkling, in a state of constant freshness. It is in this factitious 

 soil, entirely formed by art, and whose surface is estimated at about 

 three acres, that the magnolias, azaleas, andromedas, and the differ- 

 ent rosaceous plants will hereafter flourish ; indeed, they already af- 

 ford a rich supply of seeds. 



Such w^as Fromont less than six years since, when the proprietor, 

 having obtained, in the vigor of life, that leisure, which the shep- 

 herd of Virgil regretted to have known so late, conceived the plan 

 of making of a simple garden of pleasure a special monument con- 

 secrated to the studies of horticulture and botany ; but he perceived 

 that such an enterprise, in the hands of an individual, could not be 

 sustained and prosper, except by its own products, and that it would 

 fail essentially, unless industry should come in, with all its activity, 

 to the aid of science, which might, in its turn, contribute to the pros- 

 perity of the former. An establishment of industry was therefore 

 immediately founded, not as an end but a means, as the most solid 

 and necessary basis of that edifice, the future elevation of which 

 could not be determined, and the profitable cultivation of duplicates 

 without number, is becoming the honorable means and the best guar- 

 anty of the indefinite extension of the scientific collections. 



Greenhouses were constructed. Their arrangement is such that 

 they present, in somfi measure, by their extent, their conveniences 

 and their connection, the appearance of a hamlet, whose roofs are 

 all glazed. Their length is about two thousand feet; and they pre- 

 sent all the varieties of exposure, that renders tliera proper for every 

 kind of culture. Water is brought into them by leaden pipes, and 

 distributed by cocks, that pour it into some reservoirs in stone, in 

 lead and in zinc, placed in qach greenhouse, in such a manner that 

 it may be made to flow in one of the divisions only or in all the divis- 

 ions at once. In this way it may be readily made to suit the tem- 

 perature of each greenhouse. 



