from June 28. to August 16. 1840. 297 



banks of this river must teem with architectural and picturesque 

 beauty. 



The steam-boats, with their large paddle-wheels, create such 

 immense waves, that they are undermining the banks wherever 

 these are broken or perpendicular ; and it is also said that they 

 are destroying the fish, by disturbing the spawn which is depo- 

 sited among the weeds, or in the sand in the shallow margins of 

 those parts where the stream is broad and sluggish. These un- 

 doubted evils render it very desirable to introduce the mode of 

 propulsion by a horizontal screw or by a horizontal pump, one or 

 both of which substitutes for paddles will probably very shortly 

 be attempted. From Pecq we went to Paris by the railroad. 



Paris. — July 9 — 29. Much gratified with the order and 

 high keeping of the gardens of the Palais Royal, and rather 

 disappointed in those of the Tuileries; the latter having but few 

 flowers, and those badly placed, with numerous blanks. The 

 gardens at Monceaux suffering from drought, and the turf quite 

 brown, partly from the dryness of the soil, but principally from 

 the coarse kind of grasses of which it is composed, and from 

 these grasses having been allowed to become so tall as to be fit 

 for hay before they were mown, partly, also, from the exhaustion 

 of the soil. The turf here might be rendered almost as green 

 as that of England, by trenching the soil and mixing it thoroughly 

 with loam, and by sowing it only with rye-grass and other suit- 

 able grasses, or with J5romus pratensis, and keeping it clear of 

 all broad-leaved plants. Even in the moist climate of England a 

 smooth dark green lawn could not be maintained on such a soil 

 as that at Monceaux, without either rendering it loamy by ad- 

 mixture, or invigorating the plants by frequent manuring. En- 

 riching very dry soils with manure not only renders the foliage 

 of a darker green, but, by rendering it of a firmer texture, 

 enables it better to withstand drought. Any one may be con- 

 vinced of this by observing the appearance of dry upland pas- 

 tures in the driest seasons. One of the most striking proofs that 

 we know of is the difference in the effect produced by extreme 

 drought on the grass in the Hyde Park since it was top-dressed. 

 Formerly the grass was burnt up almost every summer; at 

 present the surface in the most sandy parts is rendered brown 

 in the hottest weather, but the roots escape uninjured and 

 resume their green colour with the first rains. We would there- 

 fore recommend all lawns on very dry sandy soils to be manured, 

 or the soil to be mixed with loam, so as to render it retentive 

 of moisture. There is an old hothouse in the walled garden 

 here, which was erected by Mr. Blaikie between 1770 and 1780; 

 it was sold during the first revolution, but bought in again after 

 the restoration, and is still in tolerable repair. The panes of 

 glass are about 1 ft. in width, with a curved lap ; which lap is. 



