22 Garden of Plants and 



Art. IV. Some Details respecting the Garden of Plants and the 

 National Museum at Paris, By Mrs. R. Lee (late Mrs. 

 Bowdich). 



Sir, 



I HAVE much pleasure in obeying your request, and sending 

 you a few details concerning the Jardin du Roi in Paris, of 

 which I have been an inmate during the last month. 



I was much concerned to find that the hons, panthers, &c., with 

 some of which I had long been acquainted, were all dead ; and 

 it is said that the classical-looking building they inhabited was 

 unfavourable to their nature. Animals of this kind require 

 not only warmth and shelter, but society ; but in these dens a 

 constant current of air rushes through, and the animals are 

 totally excluded from the sight of each other. Still, however, 

 there are some very fine bears of different species ; some hyae- 

 nas, one of which is very gentle, and holds his head close to 

 the bars to be caressed ; and some wolves. Among the latter 

 is one whose hair is perfectly black, and shines like floss silk. 

 He was brought when very young (I could almost have said 

 a puppy), and presented to Baron Cuvier's daughter-in-law, 

 who finding him so tame, desired he might have a dog for a 

 companion, and be fed entirely on broth and cooked meat. 

 Her orders have been obeyed, and the animal retains all his 

 gentleness and docility ; he never sees her but he stretches 

 his paws through the bars to be shaken, and when she lets 

 him loose he lies down before her, licks her feet, and shows 

 every mark of joy and affection. In a small room, not open to 

 public view, is a curious collection of squirrels, racoons, mar- 

 tens, ichneumons, and some dogs, whose monstrous birth gives 

 them a place there, in order to aid the researches of M. Geof- 

 froy St. Hilaire. 



But the great attraction — the queen of the garden — is the 



ture and weakly form would seem to mark it as an insect ill calculated to 

 endure the inclement season appointed as its proper period of existence. 

 But Nature knows her own business best : and accordingly these slender crea- 

 tures brave the tempestuous weather they are doomed to encounter, totally 

 regardless of the cold, the wet, the winds, and the fogs of November and 

 December ; 



" Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant." 



" These little bodies mighty souls inform ! " 



Trapp's Translation. 



Let it blow,- or rain, or shine, there they are, sporting and dancing away 

 under the sheltered side of banks and hedges with a resolute hardiliood and 

 perseverance that are truly admirable, apparently enjoying themselves as much 

 as the butterfly in the sultry sunbeams of July. 



