4 74< Philippines Voyage Agronomiqiie en Angleterre. 



France. 



Philippar, Fr., C.M.H.S., Member of several Societies in France, and Son 

 of the King's Gardener at the Grand Trianon : Voyage Agronomiqiie en 

 Angleterre, fait en 1829 ; ou Essai sur les Cultures de ce Pays comparees 

 a, celles de la France. Paris. 1830. 8vo, 20 pis. 



' The author appears to have viewed such gardens as he saw in this 

 country without prejudice ; but, unfortunately, he has seen so very few, that 

 he cannot have viewed them with much profit, either to himself or to those 

 who may peruse his work. The expense of living in England is so great, 

 compared with what it is in France or Germany, that scarcely any young 

 gardener from these countries can afford to stay long enough to acquire the 

 language sufficiently well to profit from the conversation of gardeners ; then 

 to examine the London nurseries, and other suburban gardens ; and, lastly, 

 to make an extensive tour in the country, to examine our English parks. 

 We can truly say, that M. Philippar has not seen a park worthy of the 

 name. He has devoted one chapter to parks and gardens, by which it 

 appears that he has been at Greenwich, in the Regent's Park, the other 

 London parks, Kensington Gardens, Richmond, and Kew, Syon, Windsor, 

 and Stow. One would be almost tempted to doubt his having been at the 

 latter place, since all that he says of it is contained in the following sen- 

 tence : — " The finest gardens that I have visited are those of Kew, Stow, 

 Syon, Windsor, and some others, which differ little from the preceding 

 [Greenwich, &c], except in extent, A much greater number of remark- 

 able gardens might be cited ; but the very short time that I was enabled to 

 pass In that country hindered me from visiting them so much as I should 

 have desired : I shall content myself, therefore, with speaking only of those 

 in which I remained a sufficient length of time to examine them in detail." 

 Accordingly, he mentions the more rare trees in the shrubbery at Kew, the 

 larches and hollies in Kensington Gardens, the thorns and Scotch pines in 

 Greenwich Park, and the weeping ashes and rustic seats in Jenkins's nur- 

 sery in the Regent's Park. 



The principal nurseries, and the Horticultural Society's garden, are no- 

 ticed ; but the principal part of the book is occupied with lists and short 

 descriptions of the plants which he considered rare at Kew, in Messrs. 

 Loddiges', Mackay's of Clapton (printed Blapson), Lee's, Mill's, Malcolm's, 

 &c. The author sought everywhere for the Arracacha, having been charged 

 to. bring a plant of it to the royal gardens, cost what it would ; but he could 

 not see one, and could only learn that plants had lived for two or three 

 years at Messrs. Loddiges', and in the Chiswick garden, as, indeed, they have 

 done at the Comte de Vandes's, Bury Hill, Plymouth, and other places, 

 and since died. M. Philippar carried with him a small quantity of London 

 loam, which, on analysing, he found to be composed of the same substances, 

 but in different proportions, as the soil principally used for growing house 

 exotics in the neighbourhood of Paris, which is found at Vitry, Ville 

 d' Avry, and a number of other places, and called terre de Clamar. 



The 20 folding plates, we are sorry to say, are, for the most part, not 

 well chosen. The zoological garden, street, houses, and gardens, a rustic 

 seat, a group, rockwork, two rosaries, a small kitchen-garden, a square, are 

 much worse than engravings of the same things already existing in France. 

 Some of the hot-houses are from Todd's work, upwards of a quarter of a 

 century old. But we cannot expect that M. Philippar should understand 

 much about the art of book-making. He would evidently have been 

 happy to have staid longer, and seen and learned more ; and we sincerely 

 wish that there might be such an approximation in the means of existence, 

 between the two countries, as would enable us to know each other better 

 in everything. If we are not mistaken, France is now about to set us an 



