THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE. 



29 



variations^ -with tlie larger subjects only used as the neces- 

 sary setting, shelter, and greenery. Another, with a good 

 soil and favourable exposition, might be made to show the 

 dignity and variety of the forest trees of northern and 

 temperate Europe, Asia, and America. One square mighty 

 like Berkeley- square in London, or the little squares in the 

 Place Napoleon III. in Paris;, be made very tasteful and 

 effective from simple inexpensive materials — such as green 

 grass, hardy shrubs, and trees. Another might display leaf- 

 beauty so as to remind one of the vegetation of the South 

 Sea Islands ; another, chiefly the dwarf prairie and hill 

 flora of cold and temperate countries; and so on — 

 each class of vegetation to be considerately adapted to soil, 

 conditions, and surroundings of the place as regards shelter, 

 liability to foul vapours, position in relation to other gardens 

 and avenues, and so on. In fact, this great principle of 

 variety is capable of doing so much for public gardens, that it 

 should be made compulsory on the heads of these establish- 

 ments to make each as different from its brother as it 

 possibly could be made. Carried out, then, as I have 

 slightly indicated, both in the private and public place, 

 gardening would be nearer to proving the " greatest re- 

 freshment to the spirits of man"'' than it has ever been in 

 any age. 



There is one feature in the Bois de Boulogne which 

 cannot be too strongly condemned — the practice of laying 

 down here and there on some of its freshest sweeps of 

 sloping grass enormous beds containing one kind of flower 

 only. In several instances, near the very creditable planta- 

 tions on the islands and margins of the lake, may be seen 

 hundreds of one kind of tender plant in a great unmeaning 

 mass, just in the positions where the turf ought to have been 

 left free for a little repose between the very successful per- 

 manent plantations. This is done to secure a paltry un- 

 natural and sensational effect, which spoils some of the 

 prettiest spots. Let us hope that some winter^s day, when 

 the great beds are empty, they may be neatly covered with 

 green turf. 



The Bois being rather level, heavy rains used to lie a 



