PUBLIC NURSERIES OF THE CITY OF PARIS. 149 



ling palms,, and all dwarf and young plants. I liave seen 

 a good many houses devoted to similar 

 purposes in public, private, or commercial 

 gardens in all parts of these islands, but 

 never any so well- arranged as those in 

 the Jardin Fleuriste. They are low, 

 and rather narrow, so that all operations 

 may be conducted from the central path- 

 way. The sashes are cheaply made of 

 thin iron, and the roof consists of one 

 sash at each side. Many of the iron 

 sashes of the old frames were utilized 

 in the building of the houses. 



As you pass along by the ends of 

 these plant houses you may see a bench 

 about a hundred feet long, filled com- t 

 pletely wirh the deeply dyed Alternan- ^ 

 theras — a sheet of colour ; the next ^ 

 devoted to young palms, as green and 

 vigorous as if in their native wilds ; 

 another devoted to young Dracaenas and 

 fine-leaved plants generally; and so on. 

 The benches are of slate, and the plants 

 are held well up to the glass, while 

 quantities of subjects in the way of Cannas 

 and Dahlias may be stored beneath, as 

 shown in the engraving. We generally 

 prefer wooden houses, but any horticultu- 

 rist who has seen the plants in this low 

 range at Passy will agree with me that 

 no plants could be in finer health or 

 condition ; while the very permanent 

 nature of the structure is a great gain, inasmuch as a 

 wooden series of the same character would require a com- 

 plete overhaul in the course of a dozen, and perhaps recon- 

 struction at the end of twenty years. 



A mode of protecting these houses from frost by means of 

 wooden shutters, each about the size of the sash of the house, 

 is deserving of notice. As will be seen by the engraving, 



ii 



