612 Notes and Reflections during a Tour ; — > 



of the garden ; and to hear, at the same time, the faint mur- 

 murs of the thousands of human voices, occupied, we may 

 suppose, with as many different topics, constitute to us the 

 greatest enjoyment afforded by these gardens. 



The Garden of the Palais Royal, once called the Garden of 

 the Revolution*, deserves to be mentioned for the beautiful 

 verdure of the turf, maintained by nightly waterings during the 

 summer season. We were very curious to ascertain, if pos- 

 sible, what species of grass succeeded so well with this treat- 

 ment ; because a grassy surface similarly treated at Caserta, 

 near Naples, was, when we saw it in 1819, comparatively 

 coarse and tufty. We could not determine this exactly, but 

 we think the species were chiefly .Lolium perenne, and Post 

 trivialis and annua. 



Nothing could be easier than to cover the whole of this 

 garden, from colonnade to colonnade, with a glass roof, which 

 might be opened and shut instantaneously by machinery, on 

 the principle which we have elsewhere suggested. (Encyc. of 

 Gard., § 1610. and 6179.) The soil and the atmosphere 

 within might be heated by hot water, or by steam ; and the 

 area laid out as a Sicilian, Andalusian, or tropical garden. 

 Orange trees planted in the ground would, so treated, thrive 

 as well here as they do at Auteuil, at the villa of M, Ter- 

 neaux ; and palms as well as they do in the south of Spain. 

 Before this plan is pronounced to be either difficult, ex- 

 pensive, or impracticable, we must request the reader to 

 examine what we have written on the subject of hot-houses. 

 He will find that by having the glass roof in small copper or 

 iron sashes, glazed with small panes, and balanced on pivots, 

 the whole of the sashes might, by a sympathetic movement, 

 be opened to the perpendicular to admit a shower of rain, or 

 to any smaller angle, to admit air, or the direct rays of the 

 sun, with as much ease as common Venetian window-blinds. 

 The surrounding sides of this garden being already erected 

 would considerably lessen the expense, which, independently 

 of the gardening required, would be little more than that of 

 the roof and of some scores of cast-iron columns, varying in 

 height from those of the surrounding colonnade, to the eleva- 

 tion deemed requisite for the central part of the garden ; say, 

 100 ft. These columns need not contain much metal, and 

 may be cased in a frame of wire- work, to be covered with 



* Les Prejuges detruits. Par J. M. Lequinio, Membre de la Convention 

 Rationale de France, et Citoyen du Globe. A Paris; chez Desenne et 

 Debray, Libraires, au Jardin de la Revolution, ci-devant le Palais Royal. 

 1792. This work, we understand, is in the course of translation, for a 

 newly projected Library of Useful Knowledge. 



