124< Notes and Reflections during a Tour : — Dieppe. 



family, who have been gardeners for upwards of three cen- 

 turies ; his father is gardener to a country gentleman, about 

 three leagues from Dieppe, who is very old, and has occupied 

 himself incessantly with astronomy for upwards of thirty-five 

 years. M. Racine, pere, works two hoars a day in the garden, 

 and the remainder of the time is with his master in the ob- 

 servatory. M. Racine's nursery may contain five or six acres. 

 The chief articles cultivated are standard roses, of which he has 

 nearly 500 varieties ; but he also grows fruit and forest trees, 

 and possesses a collection of green-house plants, and some 

 American shrubs, of better species than we should have ex- 

 pected from the situation and the demand; in short, like country- 

 tradesmen in general, he cultivates something of every thing, 

 including, not only flowers, but some descriptions of vege- 

 tables and fruits ; as cauliflowers, lettuces, strawberries, and 

 Honfleur melons. Roses and georginas, however, are the 

 present fashionable articles. Among the green-house plants 

 are several species of magnolias, five or six varieties of 

 camellias, ten or twelve sorts of oranges and lemons ; //aurus, 

 two or three species ; Brugmans/a arborea, Clethra arborea, 

 jPicus elastica, Rhododendron arboreum, six or eight species 

 of heaths, ten or twelve sorts of geraniums, and three or four 

 genera of New Holland plants. The collection of georginas 

 amounts to forty or fifty varieties, yearly increasing; tulips, 

 upwards of 100 varieties, and the collection of other bulbs and 

 of carnations in proportion. M. Racine informed us that there 

 were^several noted tulip-fanciers in Dieppe: we were introduced 

 to one gentleman, and another was named to us who was what 

 is called ruined by the fancy. For such a sacrifice we ought 

 at least to record his name, which is Sibel. 



M. Racine grows his standard roses close together, in beds 

 about 4 ft. broad, edged with the fraisier perpetuel, or alpine 

 strawberry, of which there are several varieties, some of them 

 greatly superior to others, and propagated by runners. Pro- 

 pagating this variety by seed, as is most commonly done in 

 England, is considered by M. Racine a random method, which 

 may produce good or bad sorts, and which does produce, 

 most generally, many bad sorts, mixed with but few good ones. 

 There is also a variety, valuable for edgings, which does not 

 produce runners, and which is propagated by division. 



But the most remarkable cultivation of this part of France 

 is that of the Honfleur melon, which M. Racine also grows 

 to a small extent. This melon is of an oval form, sweet, but 

 not very high flavoured, and is eaten more as a legume than 

 as a dessert fruit. It is extensively cultivated at Honfleur, near 



