76 



THE LUXEMBOURG GARDEN. 



Fig. 31, 



visitor to the J ardin des Plantes wonder at the poor external 

 aspect of its houses and some other features as compared 



with those at Kew^ he would 

 do well to bear in mind that 

 money has a good deal to do 

 with such things ; and that the 

 grant for museums^ lecturers 

 (the lectures are free), the ex- 

 pensive collection of animals, 

 and everything else in the 

 J ardin des Plantes_, is miserably 

 small. On the other hand, the 

 gardens and plants of La Ville 

 de Paris are plentifiilly pro- 

 vided with money; the muni- 

 cipality of Paris often spending 

 prodigious sums for the pur- 

 chase of plants, and even for the 

 plant decoration of a single ball. 

 One ball at the Hotel de Ville 

 during the festivities of 1867 cost considerably over 30,000/., 

 while the poor Jardin des Plantes gets from the State not more 

 than one- third of that sum to exist upon for a whole year. 



The Ampliitlieatre in the Jardin des 

 Plantes. On each side of the en- 

 trance there is a very tall and old 

 specimen of the " dwarf fan palm." 



The Luxembourg Garden. 



The beautiful old garden attached to the Palais du Luxem- 

 bourg — the favourite resort for many years of the Parisians 

 of the left bank of the Seine — has lately been almost entirely 

 remodelled, much to the indignation of the Parisian j)ublic 

 and journalists ; but it is still a pretty garden. Geometrical 

 gardens are seldom capable of affording any prolonged interest 

 or refreshing beauty ; very rarely so much so as that of the 

 Luxembourg. Before the recent alterations there was a good 

 botanic garden — an irregular sort of English garden, which 

 the French call the " never to be forgotten nursery^^ — and 

 much miscellaneous interest now passed away. At present 

 matters are much more concentrated, and we shall find less 

 to speak of than of old, but yet enough to make the place 



