96 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 



manding terraces fit for princely mansions. One June day, 

 bright, dry, and very warm, they were planting trees in this 

 park, and large ones too — trees that required great machines 

 to lift them — while they were marking the ground for fresh 

 plantings. Do you plant after this date? I asked. Yes, 

 every day in the year ! There is an imitation of a small Roman 

 temple erecting on the summit of the great cliiF, while the house 

 of the guard of the park, the entrance lodge, the bureau, and the 

 refreshment rooms, are in neat cottage style, and so placed as to add 

 much to the appearance of the park, which in the more finished 

 spots looks like a well-cared-for bit of green England. They are 

 making many beds of peat for rhododendrons, and their peat is of 

 an admirable silvery kind, much admired by all the English who 

 have seen it with me. Their late planting, however, is not to 

 be recommended, and, as its consequence, many of the young trees 

 look as the accomplished Kay of the casual ward described one 

 of the performers at the "Victoria" — "wery dicky." This park 

 has some very unusual features indeed, and should be seen by every 

 visitor to Paris, being more remarkable than others better known. 



The Jardikt des Plantes. 



We have nothing in the British Isles like the Jardin des Plantes. 

 It is half zoological, half botanical, and nearly surrounded by 

 museums, containing vast zoological, botanical, and mineralogical 

 collections. The portion entirely devoted to botany is laid out in 

 the straight, regular style, while the part in which are the numerous 

 buildings for the wild animals, has winding walks, and some trifling 

 diversity here and there. The place is really an important school 

 of science, and as such it is great and useful. In addition to able 

 lecturers on botany, culture, and allied matters, there are, I believe, 

 a dozen lecturers on various other scientific subjects, some of these 

 gentlemen being among the ablest and most famous naturalists in 

 Europe. Here BufFon, Cuvier, Jussieu, and many other leading 

 men have worked ; and here at the present day, even in minor 

 departments, are many men of well-known ability. 



