Chap. 1.] 



THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE. 



11 



the large white Chinese Magnolia (M. conspicua), and other early-! 

 flowering shrubs. The attractive Chinese, Japanese, and Ghent 

 Azaleas, and the Ehododendrons, are, of course, admirable for such 

 positions ; but there is a peculiar fitness in placing the yery early- 

 flowering shrubs on these well-carpeted green banks, where the 

 surroundings are not so winterly as they are often needlessly 

 made in gardens. 



Plaiiiations on Banks of Lake ; rock-shrubs and small cascades. 



There is one feature in the Bois de Boulogne which cannot be 

 too much condemned — the practice of laying down here and there 

 on some of its freshest sweeps of sloping grass enormous beds con- 

 taining one kind of flower only. In several instances, near the 

 plantations on the islands, may be seen hundreds of one kind of 

 tender plant in a great unmeaning mass, just in the positions 

 where the turf ought to have been left free for a little repose. 

 This is done to secure a sensational eff'ect, but its only result is to 



