164 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 479. 



unrivaled system of boulevards and avenues should not be 

 made before the opportunity is lost. , n „ , . . 



Hingham. Mass. ' ' Mary C. RobbinS. 



L'Ecole Nationale d' Horticulture de Versailles. 



IN connection with the interesting discussion on Horti- 

 cultural Education with which several correspondents 

 have been enriching our columns, the following sketch of 

 the great horticultural school of France will, we hope, be 

 considered timely. It was prepared for The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle by Jules Gachelin, once a student at Versailles : 



The National Horticultural School of Versailles is situated 

 in the grounds of the late " Potager du Roi Louis XIV.," 

 which was established in 1678 by De la Ouintinye, inspector- 

 general of the Royal Gardens, in the reign ot Louis XIV. 

 Although the grounds and conditions were not very favorable 

 to work upon, he distinguished himself by producing a real 

 " chef d'oeuvre " where everything could be grown to perfec- 

 tion. The story savs that the king would have asparagus in 

 December, radishes and lettuces in March, strawberries in 

 April, peaches in May, etc., and that he had them, which at 

 that time was a very rare thing. 



The glass-houses, where all the fruit, vegetables and flowers 

 were grown, have now been replaced by belter ones, but the 

 shape of the garden, with its fine terraces and walls full of beau- 

 tiful fruit-trees skillfully trained, is the work of this venerable 

 gardener, and there are still a few big Catillac Pear-trees which 

 are supposed to have been planted by his own hands, and 

 which bear every year a heavy crop. 



Until the first days of the Third Republic, all the produce of 

 these gardens was used to supply the tables of the sovereigns ; 

 and it may be said that Monsieur Thiers, the first president, 

 made use of them up to 1873, when the National Assembly 

 decided that these gardens and buildings should be used as 

 the site of a superior school of horticulture where nothing 

 should be spared to train good professional and practical 

 gardeners. 



The school was opened in October, 1S74, under the director- 

 ship of the late Monsieur Hardy, formerly superintendent of 

 these gardens. The announcement of the opening of the 

 school gave great satisfaction throughout France and abroad, 

 and although the Government gave an annual grant of upward 

 of .£4,000 toward the expenses of the school, and ^800 a year for 

 scholarships, help was also sent from every part of the Conti- 

 nent and abroad in the form of money, or in contributions of 

 plants of all sorts. Owing to the increasing success of the 

 school every year, the number of students is limited, the 

 average for the last three years being 100 to no altogether. 



The students to be admitted have to pass an examination in 

 elementary subjects and gardening, the first six on the list 

 receiving a scholarship from the Government of ^40, unless 

 they already hold one given by a society or province. Those 

 who hold no scholarship of any sort, but are supported by 

 patrons or can afford it themselves, can enter the school, pro- 

 vided that they have given satisfaction at the examination ; 

 any one maybe admitted between sixteen and twenty-six years 

 of age. The studies extend over three years, and are divided 

 into two sections, theoretical and practical. 



The lectures are on French, grammar, mathematics, geom- 

 etry, book-keeping, surveying, physics, meteorology and 

 chemistry applied to horticulture and agriculture ; zoology, 

 entomology and botany (first year, classification of plants, 

 desciiption of flowers, etc.; second year, anatomy of plants, 

 flowers, descriptions of diseases, etc., cultivation of fruits 

 under glass and out-of-doors, vegetables under glass and out, 

 flowering plants in and out, and ornamental trees), freehand 

 and landscape drawing and water-colors. Different rooms are 

 used for these lectures, which are given by professors ap- 

 pointed by the Government. Various collections of insects, 

 animals, flowers and fruits are open to the students, as well as 

 laboratories in which to experiment in physics, chemistry 

 botany, etc. There is also a field for experiments. 



The practical section includes five departments ; the student 

 has to remain a fortnight in each under skillful head-gardeners. 

 There are (1) fruit-trees ; (2) fruit-trees under glass, and forc- 

 ing-houses where are grown Grapes, Peaches, Strawberries, 

 Figs, Melons, Pineapples, etc.; (3) hot-houses and propagating- 

 houses ; (4) outdoor and soft- wooded plants — a botanic garden, 

 where all sorts ot medical and economic plants are grown and 

 carefully labeled ; (5) the kitchen garden, where are grown 

 vegetables, forced and outdoor. At the end of every fortnight 

 each student has to report upon his work. In the summer 

 there are frequent excursions made to the chief nurseries or 

 principal places, where the students see the best ways of culti- 



vating various plants ; and they also attend the horticultural 

 conferences, which are given occasionally, and the shows. 



There are two examinations every year ; one at Easter to 

 show the student what tasks he has to work at, and one in July 

 to class them for the year ; besides these, the professors ques- 

 tion the students at intervals throughout the year. Each stu- 

 dent has to obtain a certain number of marks to be able to 

 pass through the second year's course ; those who do not 

 attain them are declared unable to continue their studies, and 

 leave the school. At the end of the three years they pass a 

 general examination in every branch, theoretical as well as 

 practical, and if they give satisfaction, a certificate is awarded 

 them, and the first two obtain a scholarship from the Govern- 

 ment, enabling them to pursue their studies abroad. 



Every year the director receives from all parts of the Conti- 

 nent and abroad applications for men to serve as directors of 

 botanic gardens and town gardens, for head-gardeners, super in- 

 tendentsof colonial gardens, professors in schools and horticul- 

 tural societies; and f may say that some of the most important 

 positions in France and in the colonies are filled by ex-students 

 of Versailles, not to mention those abroad. From Hungary, 

 Roumania, Spain, Portugal and Germany, every year a good 

 many persons come for the same purpose as do the others, to 

 improve themselves at the school; and English, Belgians, 

 Turks, Russians, Japanese, Swiss, Italians, Spaniards and 

 others are found among the students ; and they return benefited 

 by the experience gained in the National Horticultural School 

 ot France. 



In conclusion, I may mention that there is an association 

 formed by the students, which publishes a yearly bulletin 

 which keeps a record of the position of the members, and in- 

 cludes articles on various subjects of interest, including the 

 experiments made at the school during the year. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Spring Gardening in London. — The tendency of garden 

 art in England now is more in the direction of the natural 

 style than ever. The crusade against summer bedding 

 arose not so much from a dislike for the plants used as 

 from an objection to their misuse in the production of 

 gaudy formal patches of color. We have summer bedding 

 still, but the plants are grouped more after nature's plan, 

 and if a bed of scarlet Geranium or purple Heliotrope 

 is employed it occurs in a position where the effect is good 

 and artistic. The form of the bed is often the cause of its 

 failure to please. If we could do away with the circular, 

 kidney-shaped, crescent-shaped or rectangular bed, and 

 substitute an irregular piece of broken ground, to be ulti- 

 mately covered by leaf and flower, our gardens would be 

 greatly improved. In any case the geometrical star, or 

 crescent, or monogram form is generally offensive. The 

 prevailing practice among the best gardeners here is to use 

 masses in beds generally round, but with its outline broken 

 as much as convenient by the irregular growth of the plants 

 in it. Only one kind of plant is used for each bed, unless 

 a second one be employed for a double purpose, as, for 

 instance, Pansies under Roses, or Lilies with Rhododen- 

 drons. The multicolored bed of Geranium, Heliotrope, 

 Coleus and Lobelia, so popular twenty years ago, was only 

 an exaggerated form of wriat is bad taste in color mixing. 



What is true of summer bedding applies with equal force 

 to the case of spring gardening — that is, to the use of hardy 

 early-flowering bulbous plants for floral display out-of- 

 doors. One has only to compare the beds in the terrace 

 garden filled with regularly placed Hyacinths, Tulips and 

 Daffodils with the effect produced by the same plants when 

 planted broadcast, as it \\ ere, in bank or glade, or by the 

 water-side. Sir Watkin, Emperor, Empress and Poet's Nar- 

 cissi are attractive anywhere, whether in bed or flower-pot, 

 but their grace and charm are nowhere so evident as in the 

 grass glade or slope, or in irregular groups on the lawn. 

 A bed filled with Crocuses is pleasing until one has seen a 

 grass slope studded with them. Tulips and Hyacinths are 

 also much more effective when grouped "anyhow" on 

 the grass slope or in the wild garden than when trussed on 

 the regulation coffee-colored flower-bed. The present 



