TRKES, SHKUBS, AND HARDY FLOWERS. 



157 



The nursery for shrubs is very pleasantly situated near 

 the racecourse of Longchamps in the Bois de Boulogne^ 

 and is somewhat more than twelve acres in extent. I 

 found it in excellent keeping, and with a good stock both of 

 well-known and rarely used subjects. Boses and all kinds 

 of shrubs and hardy climbers are grown here, as well as 

 nearly every description of low tree. The superin- 

 tendent considered the Caucasian Laurel (Cerasus cau- 

 casius) the hardiest and best of any he had tried. There 

 were good stocks of those fine hardy Aralias — spinosa and 

 japonica : they should be everywhere employed for the 

 sake of their large and handsome leaves. A good many 

 subjects were out for trial as to their hardiness, among 

 them an extensive collection of Japanese plants. Melia 

 Azederach was in a healthy condition after passing a sharp 

 winter in the open air. From this nursery all the shrubs of 

 the various parks, squares, and gardens of the town are sup- 

 plied. 



The nursery for herbaceous plants is situated in the Bois 

 de Vincennes, and consists of nearly twenty acres of sandy 

 ground just outside the fortifications, near the Porte Picpus 

 and Lac Daumesnil. There were here, at the time of my 

 visit, five or six acres of Chrysanthemums, prepared for 

 bedding in the various parks as soon as the frost had cleared 

 them of their summer occupants. There were also large 

 stocks of the flowers used to replace the Chrysanthe- 

 mum and decorate the gardens in spring. The stock of 

 spring flowers is an unvaried one, and leaves much to be 

 desired. Where there is so much ground devoted to a 

 specialty it ought to be well done ; and it will be a pity 

 if with so much improvement in other ways a large stock 

 of all the really ornamental hardy flowers is not formed. 

 The public gardens cannot fail to have a great influence on 

 all visitors to Paris, and it would be conferring a very general 

 benefit if, instead of depending so much on plants requiring 

 expensive stoves and ceaseless trouble for their preservation, 

 the chief gardeners of the city showed what may be done 

 with the hardy plants belonging to our own and similar 

 climates. At present their collections of herbaceous plants 



