284. 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 280. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Horticultural Education in France. — II. 



OF special schools for students in horticulture France 

 has a good number, many of which are private estab- 

 lishments, founded and conducted by individual enterprise, 

 some being local institutions under the care of boards or 

 charities, while a few, principally the National School of 

 Horticulture, are kept up by state aid and money. 



The National School of Horticulture, established in 1873 

 by a decree of the National Assembly (the first Legislature 

 after the war of 1870-71), enjoys the great advantage of 

 being located at Versailles in the buildings belonging 

 to the ancient Potager Royal, . established under Louis 

 XIV. by La Quintinie, which was kept up as a public estab- 

 lishment by every successive Government in France, and 

 may still be shown as a model fruit and vegetable garden. 

 The Potager Royal was especially successful at the time 

 of the Second Empire, under the able management of Mr. 

 Hardy, who, when there was no longer an imperial house- 

 hold to be provided for, was left in charge of the establish- 

 ment, which continued to be supported by public money, 

 with the difference that the produce was offered for sale, 

 and the proceeds covered, to a great extent, the cost of 

 keeping and management. Mr, Hardy was the first Director 

 of the School of Horticulture, and made it what it is, the 

 very centre of horticultural training in France. Such is 

 still the state of things, and while the students of the Hor- 

 ticultural School do all the garden work, they are provided 

 with an unequaled field of study in great collections of 

 fruit and other trees, Roses, flowering shrub's, perennial 

 and other plants. 



The severe frosts of the winter of 1 879-1 880 told terribly 

 on the old Pear-trees planted by La Quintinie, only about 

 half a dozen of which were spared. These now show 

 pyramids of wonderful vigor, without any deficiency in 

 limb or foliage, and are covered with fruit to the top, which 

 rises to more than fifty feet. No less than 600 varieties of 

 Pear-trees are grown at the Potager de Versailles, and ex- 

 amples of all the known forms of training are to be seen 

 there, the "pyramide" and "contre-espalier" being in favor 

 above all other methods. 



Students are not inmates of the National School of Hor- 

 ticulture, but live in the town of Versailles. Many are pro- 

 vided for by Government or private grants, a good number 

 are supported by towns or districts, and some by horticul- 

 tural societies or by private benefactors. The age for ad- 

 mission is from sixteen to twenty-six. The examination 

 for admission is not much more difficult than that at the 

 close of a course of primary education. Forty pupils are 

 received annually, and the entire course of teaching lasts 

 three years. But the number of students in the second and 

 third year is never forty, as many students are too scantily 

 provided with means to go through the entire course, and 

 others are called by military service before the last year is 

 out. The classes are also reduced by the weeding which 

 takes place at the end of each year, when such young men 

 as fail to show^ ability or desire to profit by the training are 

 dismissed from the school. The school-hours are from 

 5 A. M. to 7 p. M., with two hours in the middle of the day 

 for dinner and rest. The time is divided between manual 

 work in the different departments of the garden and study 

 in the school-rooms ; the proportion changes with the sea- 

 son, more open-air work being done in summer, and more 

 class-work in winter. 



The course of studies covers botany, geology, miner- 

 alogy, zoology, entomology, physics, chemistry, meteor- 

 ology, mathematics, surveying, book-keeping, garden and 

 glass-house architecture, the cultivation of vegetables, 

 flowers and fruit both in the open air and under glass, and 

 of trees and shrubs in nurs^eries. Every branch of horti- 

 culture, in fact, is practiced at the Potager de Versailles, 

 from the production of hot-house plants to the cultivation 

 of fruit, both in the open and under glass, the production 



of early peaches of American varieties being especially 

 successful and profitable. Open-air and forced vegetables 

 are disposed of in large quantities, and salading, mush- 

 rooms and forced melons are among the best-paying 

 branches of the work. Some melons were sold last spring 

 for more than thirty francs ($6.00) apiece. The elements 

 of drawing and of English are also taught. Students are 

 trained to do some joiner, carpenter and smith work, and 

 to make all necessary current repairs of tools and buildings. 



Good collections of drawings and pictures of the best 

 varieties of useful plants, casts of fruit, an herbarium and 

 collections of seeds of all kinds are at hand for the use of 

 the students. After the complete course of study, and 

 even when leaving the school after the second year, young 

 men very readily find good situations, either as gentlemen's 

 gardeners, directors of town-gardens, or as foremen in com- 

 mercial establishments. 



Igny, not far from Versailles, belongs to an influential 

 charitable organization known as St. Nicholas. One of the 

 branches of the establishment, which aims at making good 

 operatives of orphan or destitute boys, is a school of horti- 

 culture, not so scientific in spirit as the National School, 

 but as practical in training and provided with a sterner dis- 

 cipline, the boys living on the premises. About twenty- 

 five or thirty boys annually enter the horticultural division 

 and are kept there from two to four years. The total num- 

 ber of pupils and tutors in the Igny establishment being 

 above five hundred, most of the produce is consumed in 

 the establishment. That it would bring a good price on 

 the market is shown by the prizes won at horticultural 

 shows whenever the school chooses to enter the lists. 



Le Val, near Meudon, another charitable institution, en- 

 dowed by la Duchesse de Galliera, likewise possesses a 

 horticultural branch. The organization resembles that at 

 Igny, and the results are equally good. At both places the 

 Freres des Ecoles chretiennes are entrusted with the 

 management and teaching, and they are highly successful. 



The agricultural school at Antibes, on the Riviera, which 

 has been in operation for the last two years only, is, prop- 

 erly speaking, a school for horticulture in southern France. 

 Considerable attention is given to the cultivation of Olive, 

 Orange and Fig-trees, and the main field crops grown here 

 are early vegetables, and flowers for cutting or for the per- 

 fume factories, for which the Riviera is famous. Sixteen 

 to twenty boys, aged fifteen to eighteen years, are admitted 

 yearly and remaib for two years, their time being divided 

 much as at Versailles, with the difference that field and 

 class-room work are taken on alternate days. The course 

 of study comprises the same items, with the exception of 

 the English language. A small chemical laboratory and a 

 model dairy are attached to the establishment. A farm of 

 about fifty acres is worked by the pupils, half of which is 

 planted in American vines — proof against the phylloxera 

 pest. Crops are grown with and without irrigation, to 

 show the students the good effect and to teach them the 

 management of running water. Several other schools exist, 

 which come more or less under one of the three heads of 

 private, local or national schools. The ease with which 

 students at any of these schools find situations, either in 

 trade establishments or in the employ of gentlemen or 

 townships, is an interesting fact. 



Paris. 



H. 



New or Little-known Plants. 



Xanthoceras sorbifolia. 



TO Mr. Paul Dana we are indebted for the opportunity 

 of publishing in this issue (see page 285) the portrait 

 of a remarkably fine specimen of the rare Xanthoceras 

 sorbifolia in Mr. Dana's collection at Dosoris. 



Xanthoceras sorbifolia is a small tree of northern China, 

 related to the Bladder-nuts and Horse-chestnuts, and inter- 

 esting as the only representation of the genus to which it 

 belongs, and which owes its name to the presence between 

 the petals of curious yellow horn-shaped glands. It is one 



