from Jime 28. to August 16. 1840. 389 



a private front, as well as a public one: but we go further, and 

 say, that even if the private carriages and horses of the family 

 are allowed to come up the private front, as they are at Neuilly, 

 the peculiar privacy of that front is destroyed. 



The road to the principal entrance-front at Neuilly is a straight 

 avenue between two straight parallel beds of flowers : which, 

 at the time we saw them, were filled mostly with geraniums, pe- 

 tunias, dahlias, and standard roses. Strange as it may appear, 

 these beds of flowers are not so offensive to us as clumps and 

 borders of shrubs bosomed up with the same kinds of flowers : 

 because in these beds they are not in pots, but turned out in the 

 free soil ; and not being shaded by trees, or mixed with them or 

 with common shrubs, they have a much greater air of truth. 

 The plants in these beds are so far apart that each takes its par- 

 ticular shape ; and some portion of the soil being seen between 

 them, no doubt is left on the mind of their being planted in it. 

 The plants in pots which are employed to bosom up clumps, on 

 the other hand, are crowded together in such a manner as to 

 present an unvaried surface, and a mass of colours pellmell, as 

 Chevreuil observes, which, compared with that of plants grow- 

 ing apart in a border, is deficient both of variety and truth. 



In 1828 there was a tolerable collection of trees and shrubs 

 in the nursery-ground here, which we were anxious to examine, 

 expecting considerable additions to have been made ; but instead 

 of this, the numbers were considerably diminished by the ra- 

 vages, as it was stated to us, of the ver blanc. We found 

 Sophbra japonica pendula beautifully in flower; some seminal 

 varieties of ^^cer jolatanoides, obtusatum, and monspessulanum, 

 obtained from M. Audibert of Tarascon ; and near the river an 

 old plant of t/'lmus effusa, believed to be the largest in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris. The tree, at some former period, had been 

 cut over, and there are now three immense trunks proceeding 

 from the same base. The wood is said to be much heavier and 

 more durable than that of the common elm. Among the green- 

 house plants we found thePhilippodendron regiumlOft.high, with 

 the habit and appearance of the poplar-leaved birch; but it is far 

 from belonging to that family, as supposed in our volume for 

 1840, p. 5. From a dried specimen kindly given us by M.Jacques, 

 the royal gardener, it appears to be much nearer t/rticacese than 

 Amentacese. 



St. Cloud. — The walks and roads here, as at Versailles and 

 Meudon, were quite free from weeds and smoothly raked. The 

 grass, also, was not badly kept, considei'ing that it is a mixture 

 of unsuitable species, among which spring up numerous salvias, 

 plantagos, and other broad-leaved plants. In the hanging 

 woods, the undergrowths have all been cut down, leaving the 

 surface quite naked and black from the absence of vegetation. 



c c 4 



