Le Bon Jardinier > 1839. 167 



The Extirpateur Courval {fig. 30.) differs from an instrument of the same 

 kind which has long been in use, both in Scotland and England, for rooting up 

 docks and thistles, chiefly in having the knob, h, instead of a piece of iron 

 rivetted on in the form of an inverted arch, as shown in the weed-extirpator, 

 fig. 327., in the Encyc. of Gard., edit. 1835, p. 520. 



The Meridien a Canon is a small lens for the purpose of igniting gunpowder, 

 and producing a report at any particular hour of the day, during sunshine. It 

 is commonly set to indicate mid-day. The inventor is M. Arnheiter, who sells 

 it at a very low price. 



Hot-houses. — Several plans and sections of these are given ; but, as there is 

 nothing in them that is not already familiar to the English reader, we pass 

 on to 



The Heating of Hot-houses. — The forcing-house at Versailles is heated by 

 hot water on the siphon principle, which is explained in detail ; and an idea is 

 also given, by an engraving, of the mode adopted at Messrs. Loddiges's. The 

 hot-house brazier used by M. Fion is employed to burn charcoal, and may be 

 considered as differing chiefly from Joyce's stove in being a great deal cheaper. 



The Toot-shed, of which an engraving is given, is one of the most awkward 

 contrivances for holding tools that we have ever seen. Let the reader imagine 

 a music-stand placed against a wall, with a roof over it, and the handles of the 

 hoes and rakes projecting out on every side, and exposed to the weather, while 

 the blades only are protected, by resting on the shelves. 



A Stage for preserving Grapes is a frame 7 ft. high, 7 or 8 feet long, 

 and about 3 ft. wide; one end is open; the other, the sides, and the 

 top, are filled in with rails or bars, from which the bunches of grapes are 

 suspended. 



The remaining part of the Nouveautes, or annual supplement, consists of a 

 Report (favourable) on U Herbier generate de P Amateur, a work with coloured 

 plates of ornamental plants ; the contents of the Revue Horticole ; and an an- 

 nouncement of the Catalogue which is to be published by the Horticultural 

 Establishment of the Boulevard Mount Parnassus. 



An Essay on Manures, in which the theory of their action on plants, and the 

 principal means of obtaining the greatest benefit from them, by M. Payen, is 

 the next article ; in which the great superiority of animal manures over those 

 of the vegetable kingdom is conspicuously pointed out. 



Such are the contents of the first 92 pages of the Bon Jardinier. What may 

 be called the permanent work commences with a monthly calendar ; then 

 follow prognostics of the weather ; next, the general principles of gardening, 

 including an account of the implements used, and of the operations to be per- 

 formed, much in the same order as in the Encyclopedia of Gardening ; after 

 this, culinary vegetables are treated of in alphabetical order ; then medicinal 

 plants; then agricultural plants; then fruit trees; then ornamental trees; 

 roses, with a list of the principal French dealers in these shrubs ; next follows 

 a list of the most interesting plants cultivated in gardens, arranged according 

 to the order of their employment ; and the work concludes with a vocabulary 

 of terms used in botany and gardening, including, under the head Methode 

 Botanique, keys to the systems of Linnaeus and Jussieu. 



Our readers will thus see that the Bon Jardinier is a truly valuable work, 

 not only to French gardeners and amateurs, to whom it must be indispensable, 

 but to the gardeners and amateurs of other countries, who wish to understand 

 French gardening, or French books on the subject ; or to possess the new 

 plants or new implements introduced into French gardening or French agri- 

 culture. 



The Nouveautes of the Bon Jardinier, for 1838, are chiefly plants new to 

 Paris, but all of which are already well known in this country. M. Vilmorin 

 gives an account of his success in civilising, if the expression may be used, the 

 wild carrot. In three generations he brought it, from a little hard cord-like 

 root, to a tender fleshy cone, sweet, and of good flavour, such as we now find 



