114 



THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. YIII. 



ShowiTig widening of Walk for Playground, with 

 Seats and Shade-giving Trees. 



The Square des BatignoUes is one of the largest in Paris. 

 Entering from its lower side, the general scheme is seen to be 



that of a little vale, down 

 which meanders a streamlet, 

 ending in a small round piece 

 of water. The rich grassy- 

 sides of the streamlet slope up 

 till they end in dense planta- 

 tions, so well planted and 

 watered that they look as fresh 

 as if growing far from a large 

 city. The walk round the 

 grass expands from a breadth 

 of ten or a dozen feet to forty, in the first corner of the square, 

 so that the children find little playgrounds without going on the 

 grass. The Plane-trees have Honeysuckles trained up their stems 

 here — a pretty mode of training them. 



Here is a profuse variety of the very best shrubs, flowering 

 and otherwise ; all these groups of shrubs being edged with 

 flowers. Indeed, it is these margins that afford the floral 

 display ; and the absence of all attempt to make a garden of the 

 coloured-cotton-handkerchief pattern makes it almost as free 

 from gaudiness as a ferny dell in a forest. The keeping is 

 perfect, and there is no fence between the public and the flowers 

 but an edging of rustic iron, which rises about five inches above 

 the gravel, and is placed about two inches outside the grass. 



The streamlet is tastefully margined with tufts of water-plants, 

 but a novel feature is added. At some distance from the margin 

 — from four to ten feet — are planted here and there single 

 specimens of plants which, while not absolutely aquatic, associate 

 well with such plants; for instance, hardy Bamboos, Yuccas, 

 Erianthus, and other large grasses, some fine Acanthus latifolius, 

 the Pampas grass, and Tamarix. 



The square or garden around the Hotel Cluny and Palais des 

 Thermos is quite distinct from all its fellows, and rightly so. 

 Inclosing ruins and a museum of antiquities, the character of 

 both has been imparted to it by arranging some of the rougher 

 and more enduring objects in it; and being green and shady, 

 the effect of the whole is quiet and good, though situated 



