32 



THE GARDEN OE ACCLIMATIZATION. 



on the SOtli day of August,, tlie fete of tlieir order is 

 held here^ the patron saints being St. Fiacre and St. Rose. 

 Here the gardeners of Paris and their friends assemble 

 to the number of three or four thousand^ and amuse them- 

 selves with dancings games^ and the usual accompaniments 

 of a Parisian fete^ including fireworks^ of course. As a 

 garden^ the Pre Catalan is distinguished by good specimens 

 of standard Magnolias-, both the evergreen grandiflora and 

 the deciduous kinds^ and large masses of flowers and fine- 

 leaved plants. 



Apart from these^ which are well known and extensively 

 employed elsewhere about Paris^ I noticed that fine aquatic, 

 Thalia dealbata — usually grown in stoves in England — in 

 robust condition in the midst of a shallow running stream^ 

 the canna-like leaves large, handsome,, and 22 inches long 

 by 12 broadj and the flower stems 7 and 8 feet high (17th 

 September). It is one of the handsomest and most distinct 

 of all aquatic plants, quite different from the normal type^ 

 and should be much used with us. Erianthus Ravennas, 

 an ornamental grass^ was in flower at the same date, and 

 10 or 11 feet high. Lantana delicatissima was used as 

 margining carpeting to some beds here. Simple and 

 inconspicuous thing as it is, it is multiplied to the extent 

 of from 12,000 to 20,000 every year, which may serve to 

 give another idea of the way in which ornamental garden- 

 ing is carried on by the mu- 

 nicipality of Paris. 



Garden of Acclimatiza- 

 tion in the Bois de Bou- 

 logne. — This is a pretty 

 garden and a most interest- 

 ing place. In it you may 

 study many things^ from the 

 culture of the oyster to the 

 numerous breeds of domes- 

 tic fowls, from ostriches to 

 the different plants used for 

 bee feeding. There is here 

 Ostriches in the Jardin d'Acclimatation. an interesting hybrid ass — a 



Fia. 13. 



