428 Notes made during a Professional Tour 



think, formerly belonging to some of the French nobility, who 

 were the victims of the first revolution). There is only a very 

 small portion of the grounds occupied for nursery purposes, the 

 rest is sown with oats, barley, &c, with the exception of some 

 portion that is planted with large trees of various sorts ; and 

 forms a kind of park or pleasure-ground. M. Soulange-Bodin 

 has the greatest collection of glass structures I have ever seen : 

 they consist of houses and pits. The stove contained many rare 

 ancl valuable plants, and they were in tolerable condition ; but 

 the green-house plants were looking generally sickly. M. Sou- 

 lange-Bodin cultivates, and well, an immense quantity of camel- 

 lias ; he also grows a great number of American plants, espe- 

 cially of rhododendrons, kalmias, ledums, azaleas, &c. ; and 

 immense quantities of roses of all sorts, both as dwarfs and as 

 standards : his place, altogether, is well worth seeing, and was, 

 for its extent, in tolerable order. 



The botanic garden of Paris is a magnificent place : it contains 

 not only a very extensive and good collection of plants, but 

 almost every kind of curiosity you can imagine, such as a museum, 

 cabinet of natural history, a menagerie, and many other things, 

 that are quite beyond my power to describe, and, in fact, to 

 recollect. 



The flower-markets of Paris present at this season (Easter) a 

 very gay appearance, and the articles are produced in a state 

 which I have never seen excelled : an enumeration of the ar- 

 ticles would make a very long list, and I do not, in fact, recollect 

 them. The public walks in and about Paris are numerous. 

 The finest are those of the Tuileries, the Champs Elysees, the 

 Champ de Mars, the Boulevards, &c, which, at this time, were 

 crowded with gay company, diverting themselves with various 

 sorts of amusements. 



In passing from Paris to Rouen, you traverse a fine cultivated 

 country, abounding with objects to amuse the stranger. At 

 Rouen there are several small nurseries, but these, like those of 

 Paris, are not in a flourishing state. M. Vallet has still a great 

 many fine orange trees and roses, but nothing new. Fremont 

 le Jeune's nursery contains a good collection of fruit trees and 

 ornamental shrubs, and was in good order. The nursery of M. 

 Prevost is still the finest in Rouen. That of Calvert and Co. is 

 all gone to wreck, an event which I have expected for these six 

 years past, and which was greatly owing to the ambition and 

 mismanagement of M. Calvert, who was always embarking in 

 speculations which, owing to neglect or some other cause, totally 

 failed. I have often known him and his wife leave Trianon for 

 six months together, and commit the business to the mercy of 

 an old lawyer, who acted as a sort of trustee in his absence : 

 from this man neither money nor any thing else could be had, 



