8 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OE PARIS. [Chap. I. 



great flower-Bhows are to the ordinary stock in a nursery or 

 neglected greenhouse. It would teach people that there are 

 many unnoticed hardy little shrubs which merely want growing 

 in some open spot to appear as beautiful as any tropical or 

 subtropical plant. The system might be varied as much as the 

 plants themselves, while one garden or pleasure-ground need no 

 more resemble another than the clouds of to-day do those of 

 yesterday. 



In the rich alluvial soil in level spots, near water or in some 

 open break in a wood, we might have numbers of the fine 

 herbaceous families of Northern Asia, America, and Europe. 

 These, if well selected, would furnish a type of vegetation now 

 very rarely seen in this country, and flourish after once being 

 planted without the slightest attention. On rocky mounds quite 

 free from shade we might well display true Alpine vegetation, 

 selecting dwarf shrubs and the many free-growing, hardy Alpines 

 which flourish everywhere. To turn from the somewhat natural 

 arrangements, occasional plantings might be made as the years 

 rolled on to show in greatest abundance the subjects of greatest 

 novelty or interest at the time of planting. In one select spot, 

 for example, we might enjoy our plantation of Japanese ever- 

 greens, many of them valuable in the ornamental garden; in 

 another, the Californian Pines ; in another, a picturesque group of 

 wild Eoses ; and so on without end. Were this the place to do 

 any more than suggest what may be accomplished in this way in 

 the splendid positions ofiered by our public gardens and parks, 

 scores of arrangements equal in interest to the above could be 

 mentioned. If the principle of annually planting a portion of a 

 great park or garden of this kind were adopted instead of giving 

 all the same routine attention after the first laying out, it would 

 be found to be the greatest improvement ever introduced into 

 gardening. The embellishment of the islands in the Bois de 

 Boulogne is very successful, but it is merely one of many fine 

 results that artistic planting would secure. Plantations as full 

 of interest and" beauty might be made in other portions, and the 

 fact is the vegetable kingdom is so extensive that, although the 

 combination of knowledge and taste necessary to success might 

 not often be found in the designer, the materials for any number 

 of varied pictures could never fail. 



