Annates de la Societe d' Horticulture de Paris. 447 



the same hours. Attached to this last market is an officer, 

 assisted by expert gardeners, who examines all the plants, and 

 destroys on the spot all those which have bad roots. 



The flower market is held entirely by women, who employ 

 the greatest pains in arranging and disposing of their plants, 

 as well to display the variety of their foliage, as the shades 

 of their flowers. The retail florists come here early in the 

 morning, purchase their flowers from the first hand, take them 

 home, rearrange them, and retail them in their shops at a 

 great profit. 



Every sort of hardy and exotic shrub, bulb, and flower, in 

 general culture, will be found here; often the newest varieties 

 of roses, the camellia, the tree paeony, different species of 

 daphne, rhododendron, and azalea, gardenias, correas, China 

 roses, Cape heaths, magnolias, Cape bulbs, and even the 

 Strelitz/a reginae : in short, almost all the New Holland plants 

 introduced to France may, at one period or another, be found 

 in this market. The price is very reasonable; often, indeed, 

 plants are got here for very little, which elsewhere cost a good 

 deal. 



At this market M. Lemon exposes his finely cultivated new 

 varieties of geranium, obtained from seed ; M. Dubard, his 

 Chinese and New Holland plants ; and Mesdames Boulard, 

 Mathieu, Julienne, Devert, Joly, Lot, Durand, &c, abundance 

 of flowers of all sorts. The merchants of Paris purchase 

 flowers here to ornament their shops ; the confectioners, to 

 display at fetes and balls ; the priests, to decorate their altars ; 

 and pious children, to plant on the graves of their parents, 

 in the Cemetery of Pere-la-chaise, or other burial grounds. 

 The estimated sale per annum is 300,000 fr. (12,500/.) for 

 flowers, and 100,000/r. (4166/. 135. 4rf.) for nursery articles. 



The flowers and trees in these markets require a great deal 

 of care and attention from those who sell them ; yet, as in simi- 

 lar cases, it is often complained by the purchasers, that the 

 flowers fade as soon as they get out of their hands. Of the 

 gardeners it has been said that, before delivering plants sold 

 in pots, they turn out the ball, and place in the bottom of the 

 pot a piece of unslaked lime, which, as soon as the purchaser 

 waters his plant, swells, and burns its roots ; or, if the lump 

 has been large, it bursts the pot. The Abbe Berlese observes 

 that this idle report has arisen from the circumstance of pieces 

 of old plaster being used, as drainage to pots, by the Paris gar- 

 deners. 



2. Cours de Culture et de Naturalisation des Vegetaux. 

 Par Andre Thouin ; publie et annote par M. Oscar Leclerc. 



