PARIS. 375 



Flower-Market. 



We proceeded, by the Pont au Change, to the Quai 

 Desaix, to view the celebrated Marche aux Fleurs, Satur- 

 day being the principal day of resort to it. At a more 

 early period of the season, we were told, when the flowers 

 of spring and summer were in their prime, we would have 

 seen it to much greater advantage ; but, as it was, we felt 

 highly gratified. The market is bordered with rows of 

 low-growing trees ; and it is furnished with two fountains, 

 which afford an abundant supply of water for refreshing 

 the plants. Great numbers of select shrubs and herba- 

 ceous plants in flower, were, at this time, exposed for sale ; 

 the shrubs chiefly in small square wooden boxes, painted 

 green, and the herbaceous plants in common flower-pots. 

 Among the shrubs we remarked Jasminum grandiflorum 

 andazoricum; rosemary; Daphne odora; oleanders, both 

 single and double ; small orange- trees ; hydrangea, or hor- 

 tensia, as it is here commonly called ; and many fine spe- 

 cimens of double-flowered pomegranate, dwarfed in a re- 

 markable manner, and now covered with their rich orange- 

 coloured blossoms. Rosa multiflora is common in pots, and 

 seems to flower freely in this situation. Flowering plants of 

 the splendid Datura arborea may be added to the list. The 

 flowering of this plant, Sir James Edward Smith, in his 

 Tour on the Continent 1790, mentions as a rare oc- 

 currence ; but it has now become common at Paris, and 

 besides adorning the peristyle of a palace, it may some- 

 times be seen languishing on the window-sill of a citizen, 

 to whom its great tubular blossom has suggested the em- 

 phatic name of trompettc de jugement. Being a na- 

 tive of Peru, it was formerly kept in the hot-house ; but 

 it has proved as hardy as the Tropajolum of the same 



