614 



NOTES OF A HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



SO well managed^ being rather formal and serpentine,, not 

 following the trne line of the brook or rivnlet ; but this 

 fault is not so perceptible here as in other French gardens. 

 The quality that we know of as breadth — that which we miss 

 so much at Kew and many other fine gardens^ and see so 

 well exemplified in others of much smaller dimensions — is 

 finely shown in this garden^ the eye resting on wide green 

 sweeps of grassj margined by varied and receding outlines 

 afforded by trees^ shrubs^ and flowers. Cercis australis 

 forms a very ornamental tree in these grounds^ the long 

 shoots drooping gracefully. There is a small fruit gar- 

 den and a small but useful botanic garden^ both wisely 

 and effectively cut off from the general scene^ and not 

 thrust under the eye of the public, to weary it with the 

 sight of a scientific arrangement of plants, which is as un- 

 natural and ugly to the human eye as anything can well be. 

 Where you plant like subjects together, it is almost impossible 

 to have any of the freshness or variety of a true garden. 



E-ouEN. — This district is so near home, and its climate 

 so very much like our own, that even those possessed of the 

 erroneous idea that the climate of northern France is a para- 

 disiacal one will admit the utility of studying the culture. 

 I first Adsited the nursery of Mr. J. Wood, an English 

 nurseryman, established here forty years. Speaking of 

 fruit-growing in France and England, these were his 

 words : " For every single fruit tree sold in England there 

 are one thousand sold in France ! Every cottager with 

 ten square yards of ground buys and plants fruit trees. If 

 it were not so you would not get so much French fruit in 

 England.^'' Generally, he said, the culture of wall fruit was 

 carelessly performed in that region, with the exception of 

 the Pear. Fine old specimens of Pears against the walls 

 of chateaux afforded quantities of good fruit. Some of the 

 walls here were covered with Pear cordons trained dia- 

 gonally. In reply to a query as to the merits of this 

 particular phase of the cordon system, Mr. Wood remarked. 

 It has been a good thing for the nurserymen.'''' Precisely. 

 As a tree must be planted at every eighteen inches or so, it 

 is a very expensive proceeding ; but a " good thing for nur- 



