16 Notes and Reflections during a Tour : — 



residence. Its proprietor and cultivator, M. Soulange Bodin, 

 like M. Vilmorin, is at once a marchand grenier and an ac- 

 complished gentleman and scholar. We are proud to reckon 

 both among the number of our friends, and most happy to 

 have an opportunity of acknoM^ledging the hospitality and 

 kindness which w^e experienced from their families. In pits 

 and peat beds at Fromont are propagated more rare trees 

 and shrubs than, probably, in all the nurseries of Paris put 

 together; and they are sold at prices so low, that even the 

 trade in England and Germany is supplied from this garden 

 with various articles of importance. Our admiration of the 

 place and of the man, however, will bear an article by itself, 

 which we will give in a future Number, as a connecting link 

 between the Commercial and the Villa Gardens. 



The Nursery of M. Audehei-t, in the Boulevard St. Jaques, 

 is an old establishment on the point of being given up to 

 be built upon ; but it deserves to be mentioned as being the 

 first nursery in France in which the camellia was propagated. 

 The Auteuil Nursery consists of about an acre, and contains 

 a good collection of roses, and a few common shrubs and 

 fruit trees. 



Oct. 5. — Viherfs Nursery., at St. T)enis, was commenced in 

 1828; M. Vibert having been driven from his former situation 

 at Paris by the ravages of the ver hlanc. The only article 

 which he cultivates is the rose, of which he has several hun- 

 dred varieties, a great many of which were raised by himself 

 from seed. When he has procured a new and valuable sort, 

 especially if it belongs to the Indian species [JRosa, indica and 

 semperflorens), he buds it on the current year's shoots of a 

 stool of the ii!6sa reversa (the original plant of this species, we 

 were informed, was found by chance in M. Vilmorin's ground 

 for proving seeds in Paris) ; lays these shoots down after the 

 buds have begun to push ; and the shoot proceeding from the 

 bud, deriving nourishment from the roots emitted into the 

 soil as well as from the stock, being thus greatly strength- 

 ened, pushes vigorously, so as to admit of layers being 

 rooted and taken off the same season. This is quicker 

 work than could be practised in England. We were 

 rather surprised to be informed that dwarf I'oses on their 

 own bottoms are considered to retain the character of the 

 variety longer than such as are grafted. To prevent, as 

 much as possible, the ravages of the ver hlanc, the ground is 

 covered with wheat straw, which hinders the insect from getting 

 at the soil, and there burrowing and depositing its eggs. A 

 hard smooth surface has the same effect, the insect being- 

 unable to burrow in it. The mole cricket is here rather 

 troublesome ; and M. Beck, M. Vibert's foreman, a German 



