THE LUXEMBOURG GARDEN. 



77 



worth a short notice. The garden used to be famed for 

 its roses, and for perhaps the largest collection of vines ever 

 accumulated, but recent changes have altered all this. The 

 vines were removed bodily to the Jardin d^Acclimatation, in 

 the Bois de Boulogne, and thus it lost some of its interest. 

 The glass-house department, however, retains most of its 

 attractions, and to the horticultural visitor will present a 

 good deal of interest. It contains the best collection of 

 Orchids in anj public garden about Paris, fine Camellia- 

 houses in which the specimens attain great perfection, and 

 miscellaneous collections. The object and limits of this 

 book will not permit us to enter into particulars of this 

 department, and therefore we will go in the open air and 

 look at the broader features of the scene. 



Usually in geometrical gardens the portion nearest the 

 building is a terrace commanding the surroundings — here, 

 on the contrary, the part nearest the palace and stretching 

 away from its face is a basin flanked by balustraded terraces. 

 Above these terraces are seen numerous marble statues and 

 horse-chestnut groves. The lower portion, however, is from 

 a gardening point of view the most interesting, and we will 

 glance at the mode of decoration pursued therein. 



The grass banks that rise from the lower garden to the 

 balustrade — such slopes as may be seen in most places of 

 the kind — are not left naked, but planted with two rows of 

 dwarf rose bushes, and the effect of these is very pretty. 

 There seems no particular reason why like spots should be 

 left naked with us. Continuous borders, not beds, run 

 round the squares of grass, &c., and from the dawn of 

 spring to the end of autumn these are never without 

 occupants — never ragged, never flowerless. The system 

 adopted is one of bedding and herbaceous plants mixed, 

 but all changed every year. They steal out a spring 

 flower this week, and put in a fine herbaceous or bedding 

 plant, or strong growing florists' flower in its stead, and 

 with the very best success. Stocks of good bedding and 

 herbaceous plants are always kept on hand to carry this out, 

 and the placing of the herbaceous plants into fresh ground 

 every year causes them to flower as freely as the bedders. 



