The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 97 



Although the Jardin des Plantes is quite inferior in point of 

 beauty to any of our large British botanic gardens, it contains 

 some features which might be introduced to them with the greatest 

 advantage. Its chief merits are that its plants are better named 

 than in any British garden ; it possesses several arrangements which 

 enable the student to see conveniently, and most correctly, all ob- 

 tainable useful plants infinitely better than in any British botanic 

 garden ; gnd it displays very fully the vegetation of temperate and 

 northern climes, and, consequently, that in which we are the most 

 interested, and which is the most important for us. Its chief faults 

 are that it has a bad position in an out-of-the-way part of the town ; 

 the greater part of its surface is covered with plants scientifically 

 disposed ; the houses are poor and badly arranged compared to 

 those in our own good botanic gardens ; and there is no green turf 

 to be seen in its open and important parts. It has, in addition, a 

 very bad " climate" for pines and evergreens, and there is a ridiculous 

 kind of maze on the top of an otherwise not objectionable mound. 

 Half way up this elevation stands a tolerably good Cedar of Lebanon, 

 the first ever planted in France. It was planted by Jussieu, to whom 

 it was given by the English botanist Collinson. Beyond this there 

 is not much tree-beauty or tree-interest in the Jardin des Plantes. 

 The houses are in some cases very well cared for, but are inferior 

 to those in English gardens. There are fine collections of Palms 

 and other subjects of much importance for a botanic garden, and 

 the house collections are on the whole good, but the plants in a 

 great many cases are very diminutive and poorly developed, there- 

 fore we will pass them by. 



There is one admirable feature which must not be forgotten, and 

 that is the magnificent collection of Pear trees. M. Cappe has had 

 charge of this section for about thirty-five years, and is now a very 

 old man, but still he attends to his trees, and has them in fine con- 

 dition, though contending with much difficulty, because the space 

 upon which the trees stand is really not enough for one half the 

 number, and thus he is obliged to keep lines of little trees between 

 and under big ones, and so on. There are few things in the 



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