132 Notes and Re/lections during a Tour : — 



deception, like those of our Covent Garden ; but the latter 

 are certainly much farther advanced towards the principle of 

 equivalency. The French flower-dealers are about on a par 

 with what the sellers of fish were in Edinburgh twenty years 

 ago. The spread of knowledge among the labouring classes 

 of France, which has only just commenced with the Projet de 

 Lioi jpour V Instruction Primaire^ of January, 1831, will raise 

 the next generation of French gardeners' wives and daughters 

 into the highest principle of commerce ; and the Conductor 

 of the British Gardener's Magaziiie in 1880 will find them in 

 advance of those of London, unless we also adopt a law for 

 the instruction of all. We shall now glance at a few of the 

 flower-gardens, premising that all of them are within the 

 exterior barrier of the city. 



Fionas Garden. — Dec. 29. We fflanced at this garden 

 in September, and examined it more in detail in Decem- 

 ber. It is decidedly more ingenious, both in a botanical 

 and ornamental point of view, than any which we met with 

 among the French commercial gardens. M. Fion has in- 

 vention, enthusiasm, and taste ; and the whole of these quali- 

 ties being directed to his profession, and employed upon a 

 spot not much larger, as it seemed to us, than an English 

 acre, he has formed a garden brimful of interest. Had he 

 the means, he told us, he would make a simple work of build- 

 ing hot-houses and cultivating tropical plants, by covering his 

 entire garden with a lofty roof of glass : but no man exercis- 

 ing the faculties above-mentioned is very likely to accumulate 

 wealth. A man of genius who has to procure the means of 

 subsistence by a profession, will of necessity always be on the 

 verge of w^ant or insolvency : and, if he begins as an inde- 

 pendent man, with a fortune at his command, he is equally 

 certain of spending it, and coming to want. This is a dis- 

 ease incident to a peculiar stage in the progress of educa- 

 tion ; and the only palliative is to increase the number of 

 tastes and pursuits of the patient, so as to neutralise or reduce 

 the ruling passion. The French, we cannot help thinking, 

 are much less apt to ruin themselves by any single pursuit 

 than the English ; perhaps, because to every Frenchman the 

 enjoyment of female society forms an essential part of life. 



W'e can only speak of M. Fion's garden from recollection. 

 It contains a number of houses and pits, in which is not only 

 an extensive stock of popular plants, such as camellias, ericas, 

 pelargoniums, oranges, &c., but also some of the most rare 

 hot-house and green-house plants to be found in Paris. 

 There are some ornamental buildings ; a small temple contain- 

 ing a bust of Thoiiin (and it is paying M. Fion no mean 



