Paris. 387 



meaning of the term espalier, as is evident from its being 

 used in our sense in the earliest French books on garden- 

 ing. Our riders, we may add, are here called arbres a 

 tige ; and our common standards are arbres a plein-vent. 



The various kinds of grafting are likewise here exempli- 

 fied ; and besides the usual modes, some curious greffes 

 are shewn. But even these it is unnecessary to speci- 

 fy, as Professor Thouin has described the whole in diffe- 

 rent volumes of the Annales du Museum. His papers are 

 models of complete descriptions ; if he errs, it is in being 

 too formally minute. One remarkable attempt, called the 

 Grejfe Banks (in honour of the late President of the 

 Royal Society), may just be noticed. It consists in endea- 

 vouring to unite laterally, by grafting into each other, a 

 number of young trees, so as to form one broad but nar- 

 row plank or tree. It had been tried on a dozen of the 

 white American ash (Fraxinus acuminata, Pursh), and on 

 a like number of th i Sophora Japonica ; but though it has 

 succeeded to some extent, it does not appear probable that 

 it will ever be attended with useful results. 



A walk lined with catalpa-trees separates the fruit-tree 

 school from a very pleasing and useful compartment, where 

 specimens of all the corns, grasses, culinary vegetables, dye- 

 plants, and other crops usually cultivated in the north of 

 Europe, are assembled. The species are kept most distinct 

 from each other, and seemed to be very accurately named. 

 Over the spikes and panicles of the corns and grasses, bags 

 are tied when the seeds approach to ripeness ; so that the 

 heads, when mature, can be cut off whole, while still remaining 

 in the bags. They are thus at once protected from birds, 

 preserved quite distinct, and hindered from shedding their 

 seed on the ground. Three varieties of succory here ap- 

 peared ; the common large-leaved, which is cultivated in 

 gardens ; the chicoree a nwvet, or cafe-chicoree, every way 



B b2." 



