690 Foreign Notices : — France, 



latter country, for the purpose of furthering Mr. Hall's views ; but this gen- 

 tleman stated that he found that seed imported from a distance (and he had 

 tried some from Italy) was liable to become diseased." {Edinburgh New 

 Philosophical Joiwnal, Oct. 1836.) 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



Paris, Rue des Vignes, No, 5. d Chaillot, May S. 1836. — I received your 

 Setter of the 9th April ; and, in reply, forward you some account of the salis- 

 buria which I sent to M. Gaussin, at Bourdigny. It was raised from a 

 cutting taken from a plant in the garden of the Chevalier Jansen, an English 

 gentleman. This garden is now the Jardin Marboeuf. The tree was known, 

 when I came to Paris in 1777, under the name of Arbre de quarante E'cus, as 

 I was told ; Mr. Jansen, who was very curious in plants, and who planted 

 those gardens, having bought the plant at that price. As I was acquainted 

 with that gentleman, I procured cuttings from the plant from him, which I 

 reared. The Abbe Nolin was at that time the director of the nurseries of 

 the King of France. He received many plants and seeds from the missionaries 

 an China, several of which I remember to have seen, which are now lost. The 

 Abbe would not give any of the plants which he received, either to the Jardin 

 des Plantes, or to that of Trianon, which was a botanic garden under Louis 

 XV., and conducted by Richard ; but, as I was in good friendship with all the 

 three, I frequently saw what they had. The Abbe Nolin, being a native of 

 the south of France, had an establishment near Marseilles, or Toulon, where 

 he sent many plants that he supposed would not bear the winter in Paris, and 

 amongst others the gingko, of which I knew that he had some plants at that 

 time. The plant which I sent to Bourdigny was raised, as I mentioned 

 above, from a cutting of that of Mr. Jansen. The original tree in the Jardin 

 Marboeuf was destroyed, some years ago, to give place to some buildings ; and 

 those who cut down the tree for fire-wood neither knew nor cared whether it 

 had borne fruit or not. Most of the trees that I planted at Monceau and 

 Bagatelle were destroyed, when I left Paris, during the revolution of 1792; 

 and, as I was absent from Paris many years, I can get no information whether 

 the salisburia, that was among those destroyed, had borne fruit or not ; but I 

 imagine that the salisburias still existing near Marseilles and Toulon were 

 those sent from Paris by the Abbe Nolin. I saw lately, at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, young plants raised from seeds of the salisburia, which came from near 

 Toulon. — Thomas Blaikie. 



Bldkea, Garcima. — As you wish to know some part of my life, I shall mention 

 a curious circumstance that occurred to me in 1775. When I was rambling 

 upon Mount Jura, I met one day a gentleman, who, like myself, was looking 

 after plants. We soon got acquainted, and showed each other what we had 

 discovered. We afterwards walked together to his little chateau, situated at 

 the foot of the mountain ; and he told me that his father, who was dead, had 

 been a great botanist, a member of the Royal Society of London, and a cor- 

 respondent of Linnaeus. To convince me ofthis, andto show me that Lin- 

 naeus had named a plant in his name (Garcink), he opened the Species 

 Plantamm, to show me Blake« Garcink, in Dodecandria Monogynia ; which 

 made me laugh at the singularity in finding my name united with his. I told 

 him, in a joke, I did not know we were such near relations ; and when I showed 

 my name joined to his for the same plant, he began exclaiming " Diable ! " and 

 a,sked me from what country I came. I told him from Scotland. He added 

 another " Diable ! " and said he had served in Russia with two of my country- 

 men, officers in the same service as himself. That one day, on an excursion, 

 they were surrounded by a company of Tartars, and taken prisoners, and carried 

 ■off into the interior of Tartary, he imagined towards China ; when the two> 



