228 State of Gardening in Trance : — 



more distant parts of the city. After this time the necessity 

 of a good supply of water becomes apparent, as many of the 

 plants have been recently potted, and others have been trans- 

 posed to larger pots, in which practice the French gardeners are 

 extremely expert. The markets are almost exclusively attended 

 by the females, whose husbands frequently accompany them to 

 assist in arranging the plants for sale, and afterwards return to 

 their respective gardens to superintend and assist in the labours 

 of the soil ; the cultivation of flowers and vegetables being 

 generally confined to the limits of the city. I must not forget 

 to state that the plants sold in the flower market are generally 

 the free-flowering pelargoniums, cactuses, neriums, orange trees, 

 and other showy and fragrant species ; all of which are neatly 

 tied up, and the heads of the plants are sheltered in white paper, 

 which is formed into a kind of cup to protect the blossoms, and 

 yet permit them to be seen, and which improves the saleable 

 appearance of the plants. Another portion of the quay is 

 appropriated at this season to the sale of herbaceous and seed- 

 ling plants for transplanting; and this space is occupied through 

 the winter by the growers of fruit trees and evergreens, which 

 are then brought to market in great number and variety. 



The growers of trees and evergreen shrubs live chiefly at 

 Vitr}?^, a few leagues distant from Paris, where the soil is well 

 adapted for their growth ; the nurserymen and gardeners pre- 

 ferring to buy them when brought to market, rather than to 

 cultivate them in the immediate vicinity of Paris, where the soil 

 is not so well suited to their growth, and where the land is of a 

 much higher value. The system of culture appears to be more 

 generally divided in France than with us : first, there are the 

 vegetable growers, who are principally resident within the limits 

 of the city, in the part called the Marais ; then the fruit growers, 

 for the immediate supply of the inhabitants, who live just with- 

 out its boundaries ; and, again, those who cultivate the heavier 

 description of vegetables, such as onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, 

 &c., who live a few miles distant, where, of course, land can be 

 obtained on much better terms than in or near the city. An- 

 other department of culture is that of flowers exclusively in pots 

 for sale, as mentioned, in the flower market. Then, again, there 

 are some few more extensive growers of roses, &c., who have 

 also a general collection of the rarer and better sorts of plants, 

 such as M. Noisette, M. Cels, M. Soulange-Bodin, M. Laffay, 

 and some few others, who also cultivate roses, dahlias, &c. At 

 Versailles, which is ten or twelve miles from Paris, camellias are 

 extensively cultivated ; but in no instance could I observe any- 

 thing approaching to the extensive or business-like arrangements 

 which are apparent in the large nurseries in England ; nor the 

 slightest approach to that extent of capital embarked in the 



