96 



THE SQUARE DU TEMPLE. 



in consequence of the constant and thorongli waterings. 

 Previous to visiting this garden^ I liad no idea that they 

 would under any treatment look so well at the end of a 

 hot season. A plant of A. latifolius here was six feet in 

 diameter, not three feet high^ and of the deepest and freshest 

 green. I can compare it to nothing but the young pushing: 

 leaves of a healthy Camellia in point of glistening verdure. 

 Bocconia frutescens I never saw in such prime condition as 

 here — the leaves were three feet long and fifteen inches 

 wide, the plant four and a half feet high. Perhaps the 

 handsomest grass I have ever seen, as regards its foliation, 

 was here also. I do not except the Pampas. It was a 

 species of Cinna, which had just shown flower for the first 

 time ; but it was the grace and position of the leaves that 

 were the most conspicuous. The central shoots gave off a 

 lot of leaves near the base, as grasses usually do, and con- 

 tinued ascending till seven or eight feet high, giving off 

 arching leaves all the way to the summit. The falling spray 

 of a fountain is not more graceful than were these leaves. 

 The effect of such things isolated on the grass is by no 

 means sufficiently appreciated by us. A handsome specimen 

 of Bambusa aurea, planted alone on the grass, helps to show 

 . what may be expected of these tall, shrub-like grasses in 

 the time to come ; I believe they will impart to our gardens 

 an entirely new aspect, and that of the most desirable sort. 

 The one we suppose to be the hardiest of all is tenderer than 

 several other species grown in Parisian gardens, and which 

 are enumerated elsewhere in this book. Cyrtanthera carnea 

 is used in this and other Parisian squares as a tall edging 

 plant, and is effective when so employed. 



On one of the grass plots here is a group in bronze. 

 Though in an out-of-the-way part of the town, the keeping 

 is quite as good and the plants quite as choice as in the 

 most fashionable parts. 



The Square du Temple. — This, although a pretty square, 

 has scarcely the finish of those previously noticed, but it is 

 a great advance on anything we possess in the same way, 

 and, as usual, was, on a very hot day in the beginning of 

 last September, as fresh as if it had not endured a scorching 



