Gardens and Nurseries at Lyons. 113 



de Fontainebleau, le Bourdelas noir, and le Charge Mulet, re- 

 markable for the large size of their berries. Besides the above, 

 and a number of other kinds of table grapes, there is a collection 

 for wine-making, including le Tokai. This property, which 

 overlooks the fine valley of Francheville, has been improved 

 from a surface of flints to a soil so rich as to grow the giant 

 maize to the height of three metres. (A metre is about 

 39|in.) 



Chapelle's Agricultural and Horticultural Establishment, under 

 the direction of Gaillard, nurseryman, contains an extensive 

 collection of fruit and forest trees and mulberries. Of the latter, 

 one square contains 50,000 plants, and the total number of 

 mulberries (M. alba) is between 400,000 and 500,000. Exten- 

 sive plant-houses are being erected for the culture of exotics. 



The Nursery of M. Martin- Bur din occupied the committee a 

 whole day examining its green-houses, stoves, pits, hot-beds, 

 orangery, and open ground. A large collection of dahlias was 

 now in flower, and the fruit trees were in excellent condition, 

 except the peach, which, owing to the late spring, has not 

 succeeded well anywhere. There is here a large collection of 

 florist's flowers of every kind, such as tulips, hyacinths, chrysan- 

 themums, paeonies, &c. In the stove, Carmichaelza australis 

 was in fruit, and Arracacha esculenta Hook, was alive, but they 

 had not ventured to place it in the open air. In the orangery 

 was a iVerium atropurpureum, esteemed rare ; and, in the open 

 ground, a hardy variety of olive, from the Crimea [of which a 

 plant in the Horticultural Society's garden passed the winter of 

 1837-8 without injury]. 



Nerard ai?ie's Nursery and Flower-Garden, at Vaise, contains 

 many ornamental trees and shrubs, besides the usual florist's flowers 

 and border plants, numerous species andvarieties of pelargoniums, 

 20 phloxes, 30 calceolarias, Z/ilium longiflorum, 25 species and 

 varieties of Magnolm, 8 of myrtle, 15 of iVerium, 23 of Ca- 

 mellz'tf, 15 of Rhododendron, 22 gooseberries, 25 honeysuckles, 

 a great many fuchsias, oranges, roses, &c. Among the latter are 

 Madame Lacene, a rose somewhat resembling that called the 

 Roi de Rome ; le The Hamon, a fine rose ; Madame Nerard, a 

 remarkably large and fine rose, with an agreeable smell ; and 

 Madame Hamon, remarkable for its flowers, and also for the 

 acute toothings of the leaves. A pyramidal oak, about twenty 

 years of age, bears acorns yearly; but the plants which are 

 raised from them do not always produce pyramidal heads, many 

 of them having spreading branches. [This is as we expected it 

 would be. See Arb. Brit., p. 731.] Among the elms are t/'lmus 

 pyramidalis crispa, U. maculata flava, and U. macrophylla ; the 

 latter having very large leaves. Sizyphus sativa, covered with 

 fruit ; A^cer oblongum, which stands through the winter in the 



Vol. XV. — No. 108. i 



