37* HOKTKU T LTl T KAL TOUfy 



ant abject will not be lost sight of. Were such a market 

 established in a convenient and centrical situation, (such, for 

 example, as the margin of the sloping and winding terrace- 

 road leading from Prince's Street to the Little Mound, re- 

 commended, we believe, by the Committee), a greater quan- 

 tity of fine fruit would be brought to Edinburgh for sale, and 

 many showy and fragrant plants would be rendered acces- 

 sible to the inhabitants. The taste for fine plants is evi- 

 dently on the increase at Edinburgh. Besides the collec- 

 tions of these to be found in the long-established nurseries 

 of Leith Walk, Broughton, Meadowbank and others, we 

 have, within these few years, seen rich sale-collections arise 

 at Comely Bank beyond Stockbridge, and at Stanwell 

 Lodge near Leith. It seems clear, therefore, that in esta- 

 blishing a fruit and flower market, the Magistrates would 

 at once consult the comforts of the inhabitants, and pro- 

 mote the welfare of many deserving cultivators in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the city. 



Bird-Market. 

 In returning homewards, our attention was attracted by 

 the Bird-Market, on a quay near the Pont Neuf. Live 

 quails were plentiful, and several of the passerine tribe 

 which abound in France. At an earlier period of the sea- 

 son, we understand, golden orioles, hoopoes, rollers, and 

 all birds of splendid plumage, are brought to this market 

 in great numbers ; and in May and June the nests and 

 young are often exposed to sale. Those now mentioned 

 are rare birds in Britain, being little more than occasional 

 visitants of our island : in France they are resident, and 

 found in great plenty. Numbers of the more common 

 singing-birds are always to be procured in this market ; but 

 the rarer birds of oog, and the parrol tribe, are sold chief- 



