490 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



[ December 21, 1871. 



must bear in mind that there are natural difficulties also to 

 contend with, and that we shonld endeavour as far as we are 

 able to pay attention to these obstacles, and try to grow in and 

 around our town such trees as will grow best under the cir- 

 cumstances in which we are placed. 



Mr. Pdterson said no doubt a general opinion prevailed that 

 it was to the smoke and chemical vapours in the neighbourhood 

 the decay of vegetation was largely owing, but there were other 

 causes in operation which would go far to explain the pheno- 

 mena. For instance, the Fir was frequently found in a state of 

 decay under circumstances that might be considered favourable 

 to its growth, and which it was impossible to explain from any 

 cause referred to. There was also another plant very sucseptible 

 to smoke — the Laarustinus. It was extremely sensitive to 

 smoke and chemical vapours, and yet it grew vigorously in the 



immediate neighbourhood. In the case of Ferns there was a 

 difficulty in associating the alpine with the common Ferns of 

 the neighbourhood, inasmuch as they required a drier atmo- 

 sphere. The failure in growing them was not, therefore, to be 

 ascribed to smoke, but was due entirely to the altered condition 

 under which these plants required to be treated. 



The Eev. J. B. Johnstone said, that when recently in Soot- 

 land, he observed several Larch trees had died in certain districts 

 which were free from smoke and chemical vapours. No one 

 could give the reason for it, and the curious thing was that 

 trees of greater size formerly flourished on the spots. 



Mr. Green, in replying to the remarks of the various speakers, 

 gave the results of his observations on various forest trees irs 

 the Bewsey Valley, and said that he invariably found that the 

 trees commenced to die from the west side. 



"LES PROMENADES DE PARIS." 

 Bois DE Boulogne, Bois de Vinoemnes, Pakcs, Squae.es, Boulevards. Par A. Alphand. Paris: J Eothschild. 

 "This splendid work is the substance, of which one with a i the shadow. AH that talent in engineering skill combined with 

 somewhat similar title recently published in English is merely | artistic ability and enterprise can effect, imite in making this 



Watering Apparatus. 



volume of M. Alphand the most complete, useful, and elegant 

 which has ever been produced on what we ia this country are 

 accustomed to call Landscape Gardening and Groimdwork. No 

 one could have been better qualified than M. Alphand for the 

 execution of such a production. His experience is that which 

 few men have had the opportunity of gaining, for throughout the 

 whole of the extensive works which have for so many years been 

 going on in the construction of modern Paris, M. Alphand has 

 been chief engineer, and most ably has he given to the world 

 the result of his vast experience in this remarkable book. 



The work is essentially a livre de luxe, printed on paper akin 

 in quality and substance to cardboard, and illustrated both by 

 wood engravings and cbromo-lithograpbs in the highest style of 

 French art. We have recently given in our pages examples of 

 ttiese woodcuts, which were liberally placed at our disposal by 

 M. Eothschild. The portraits of Palms with which our pages 

 have lately been interspersed are taken from the sheets now 

 before us, and we shall be enabled, through M. Eothschild's 

 kindness, to furnish our readers with a variety of illustrations 

 ii-om which they will be enabled to form a slight, though very 

 slight, idea of the quality and importance of " Les Promenades 

 de Paris." 



The first section is devoted to the Bois de Boulogne, and the 

 first chapter of the section ti-eats of the general description of the 



Bois and the works which have already been completed there;, 

 and what renders the information which is given so valuable is, 

 that the details of the works are all illustrated and the entire 

 cost of them is given. The third chapter treats of the roads and 

 walks, of which every particular is furnished of the drains, the 

 tanks, the baUast, the gravelling, and even to the edgings. In 

 Chapter IV. we have a full account of the arrangements for sup- 

 plying the Bois with water, in which the tmderground arrange- 

 ments for conducting it and the hydrants are fully explained and 

 illustrated. The figure which is here given represents the mode 

 by which the roads and walks of the Bois are watered. M. Al- 

 phand says that formerly this operation was performed by means 

 of water-barrels drawn by horses, and containing one cubic 

 metre of water, which was dischrrged through a pipe behind 

 pierced with holes ; but since the introduction of the " lance," 

 which is represented in the figure, the cost of watering has been 

 reduced from 210,000 francs for six months' watering to 55,000 

 francs per annum. 



Chapter V. treats of the lakes, sheets of water, rivulets, and 

 cascades. The most important of the latter is the "Grande 

 Cascade de Longchamps," of which we furnish an artistic repre- 

 sentation taken from the original work. The waters which sup- 

 ply this cascade, reserved during twenty-four hom-s in the reser- 

 voir, are discharged at the fashionable hour of promenade in a 



