October 24, 18V2. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



331 



colour, with a beautiful radiating circle of red surrounding the 

 stone, and extending into the fruit. 



A FEW NOTES MADE IN FBANCE. 

 On October 2nd, as I strolled into the garden of the Hotel 

 de Ville at Rouen, which garden adds so much to the pictorial 

 effect of the beautiful church of St. Ouen, I was much struck 

 with the beauty of the sward, which I found to consist wholly 

 of the small-leaved white Clover, forming a surface as smooth 

 as velvet and green as it was possible to be. Going on, I 

 noticed a raised device in several of the smaller lawns around 

 the borders, which was so ingenious and effective that I took 

 out my note-book, thinking it possible it might give an idea to 

 some of the readers of the Journal. The device was that of 

 the imperial fleur-de-lis, about 3 feet from point to point and 

 2 feet in its depth; the whole shape raised about 6 inches 

 from the general lawn , carefully made, and kept with scrupulous 

 neatness, the turf of which it was formed being as firm and 

 smooth as if moulded in clay. At the points of the fleur were 

 small round stones as if to receive pots of flowering plants, 

 but none were there, and I could not find a gardener of whom 

 to make the iuquiry. This note-book may afford you some 

 jottings by the way if worthy of reproduction. 



In the neighbourhood of Boulogne no fruit trees are culti- 

 vated except the Pear. It is the speciality of the district. 

 When roaming into the sequestered valleys away from the sea, 

 Pear trees are seen in every garden large or small on the walls 

 of all aspects. By the side of the walks they are always trained 

 as pyramids, or, as we call ihem, French-trained — closely 

 pruned, and never allowed to grow tall. Summer-pruning is 

 evidently universal. I do not remember to have seen a 

 standard tree. Apples and Plums are altogether wanting. 



Another peculiarity of tree-culture struck me : All the forest 

 trees when planted seem to have been pollarded. The leading 

 shoot of 2 inches diameter had been cut off, so that to English 

 eyes the beauty of the future tree seemed to have been per- 

 manently spoiled. There may be some local reason for this 

 habit, but I could not guess what it might have been. 



In the market of Boulogne the Pears most esteemed were 

 the Louise Bonne, Beurre Diel, Duchesse d'Angouleme, and 

 Catillac, besides some others of second quality and more abun- 

 dant in quantity whose names I did not know. The same 

 applied to the shops of Amiens, Rouen, and Havre. On the 

 road to Abbeville nothing but the Poplar is to be seen, as is 

 the case in the hedgerows around Boulogne. Why it should 

 be so general is unaccountable, its wood is so useless, and 

 fuel is so scarce. 



The markets of these towns are largely supplied with white 

 Grapes sent from Paris, but nowhere did I see any cf the 

 Black Hamburgh, which in English markets is at this time of 

 year the most abundant. These Grapes must have been ripened 

 under glass, but had not received the same careful culture we 

 give them. The vegetables in use -were such as we are accus- 

 tomed to, except that Turnips are less frequent. Lettuces are 

 not seen, but Endive forms a most important item both in the 

 gardens and at every table. Scorzonera, and a white root like 

 it, were also abundant, they give flavour to the stews. Haricot 

 Beans are on every stall. As you leave Amiens and approach 

 Rouen (a most lovely ride, and that morning superlatively 

 beautiful, as the sun gradually rose and illumined the land- 

 scape), Apples are everywhere to be seen. The trees are aU 

 standard, not often, as in England, collected into an orchard, 

 but scattered everywhere over the fields whether in pasture or 

 tiUage. This is the centre of an extensive cider country. 

 Cider is as often written over the doors of the estaminet as 

 beer, brandy and liqueurs not being forgotten. 



On the swampy country near Amiens in many fields were 

 shocks of what appeared to be reed for thatching. On closer 

 examination this could not be the crop, and I was puzzled till 

 I learnt that these were sheaves of Hemp drying, a crop I had 

 never seen. In some fields I noticed that they were stripping 

 the seeds from the stalk by drawing each stem through a 

 forked stick. The father sat on the ground, and rapidly thus 

 stripped of their seeds the plants, which were handed to him 

 by women and children, forming a very interesting rural group. 

 A cart laden with Hemp just in from the fields, to the unac- 

 customed eye is fairly a puzzle. 



The absence of rabbits from some lands peculiarly fitted for 

 them, and the few to be seen in the ordinary markets, as well 

 as the few pigs dead or alive, surprised me, as the poorer 

 classes are on the look-out for food which would be rejected I 



with disgust by the same class in this country. One clever 

 dodge to obtain fuel that otherwise was wasted is, I think, 

 worthy of record. In the harbour there are pieces of wood 

 floating about, to obtain some of which a boy urged with much 

 address his dog into the water. To tempt him thither the 

 boy threw stones ; in the dog dashed, snapped up the wood 

 which was the object of his master's wishes, received his well- 

 earned praise, and again dashed in after another stone, which 

 was always skilfully pitched near a piece of wood. At length, 

 by the shrewdness of the boy and labours of the dog, an arm- 

 ful of wood was carried away, to the mutual satisfaction of 

 man and beast. 



In the country around Boulogne the smaller birds were as 

 numerous and as varied as they are in our corresponding lands. 

 On one occasion I saw a woman whose only article for sale 

 was six starlings carefully plucked. I wonder what octroi she 

 had to pay, for nothing so surprised me as the zeal with which 

 this municipal tax is sought. I had to pay Id. for taking into 

 France four partridges ; and everybody entering Havre from 

 the opposite town, Honfleur, was carefully examined to see 

 that he brought no Apples nor Pears without paying duty. 

 This small town, Honfleur, is the great seat of egg-merchandise, 

 the value of eggs imported into Southampton is marvellous. 



Can any of your readers tell us what are the circumstances 

 which give rise to councils and discussions among the sparrows ? 

 At certain times before roosting among then' Ivy beds there 

 will be a great clatter, but never did I hear such a chatter as 

 amid a storm of wind and rain the sparrows made on the 

 Bourse at Havre. It drowned every other sound. The talk 

 of men was silence compared to then' twitter. 



The plan of tethering the cows to eat down the clover equally 

 seems one quite worthy of imitation, as there is no loss of 

 herbage, though doubtless not so agreeable to the cows, who 

 enjoy lying about where they, not then- masters, choose. The 

 Normandy sheep are very picturesque, but are very poor 

 when compared with the compact well-made horses and cows. 

 I travelled with a most intelligent horse-dealer, who told me 

 one man near Havre had imported English Southdown rams 

 to improve his stock. This man yearly travelled through Eng- 

 land to buy up all the good horses he could, and complained 

 much of the increase of continental buyers, whereby the prices 

 in England had so gone up. 



The marvellously free growth of the Acacia struck me very 

 much. For miles the embankments were covered with it — a 

 dense bank of green, the saplings springing up more abun- 

 dantly than Thistles by a neglected roadside. Though the 

 land is very ferruginous I did not notice a plant of Heath of 

 either kind, and but few patches of Gorse or of Bracken, till 

 we approached Havre. This is a lesson how gardeners should 

 study the nature of the soil and its fitness for certain plants 

 if they wish their pets to thrive and look well. Near South- 

 ampton I noticed the same tendency of the Acacia to flourish 

 and to cover large breadths of ground. 



As you pass the gardens the number of the cloches struck 

 me, as well as the careful way in which they were packed away 

 — a thin layer of straw between each, that when nested they 

 might not be cracked. Borders of the large yellow Pumpkin 

 were everywhere to be seen, a vegetable we never use in common, 

 whereas in these markets large slices, or halves or quarters, 

 were everywhere for sale. . 



If any of your readers should be at Abbeville let them, if 

 interested in such matters, visit the museum of M.Perthes, 

 where there is a wonderful accumulation of genuine old cabinets, 

 china of all kinds, but, above all, a marvellous collection of 

 implements of the so-called stone age ; Abbeville being the 

 district most noted for these memorials of a bygone age. 



In the garden at Rouen I noticed a most ingenious, and, I 

 should presume, successful device in transplanting large trees. 

 Around the bole of the trees there was sewn, running to the 

 ground, a stiff canvas covering. This was filled with sand, 

 forming a coating of about 4 inches. At the top of this canvas 

 bag a large zinc funnel was fastened, whereby all the water 

 that fell into the funnel was conveyed to the 'sand, keeping 

 the bark of the trunk moist. This answered the purpose of 

 the haybands which we use under the like circumstances, but 

 it must be more effectual. On one tree I noticed that three 

 of the funnels had been affixed to corresponding large branches, 

 an amount of precaution few here would have taken. In the 

 same garden was a very neat and most effective protection of 

 the lawns from trespassing feet. Rods of iron thick as the 

 little finger, with prominences to imitate natural branches, 

 were interlaced in semicircles of about 15 inches diameter and 



