THE JARDIN DES PLANTES. 



69 



Fig. 27. 



Aquatic birds in the Jardin des 

 Plantes. 



of beauty to any of our large British botanic gardens, it con- 

 tains 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 con- 

 veniently, and most correctly, 

 all obtainable useful plants 

 infinitely better than in any 

 British botanic garden ; and it 

 displays very fully the vegeta- 

 tion 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 scien- 

 tifically 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 impor- 

 tant parts. It has, in addi- 

 tion, a very bad atmosphere 

 for pines and evergreens, and 

 there is a ridiculous kind of 

 maze on the top of an other- 

 wise 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 in the Jardin des 



Fig. 28. 



Animals in the Jardin des Plantes. 



