48 



i 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PARC MONCEAU. 



This is on the wliole tlie most beautiful garden in Paris^ and 

 well stows tlie characteristics of the system of horticultural 

 decoration so energetically adopted in that city. It is not 

 large, but exceedingly weU stored, and usually displays a vast 

 wealth of handsome exotic plants in summer. In spring it 

 is radiant with the sweet bloom of early-flowering shrubs 

 and trees, every bed and bank being covered with pansies, 

 Alyssum, Aubrietia, and all the best known of the spring 

 flowers^ while thrushes and blackbirds are whistling in the 

 adjacent bushes, as if they were miles in the country, 

 instead of only a few minutes^ walk from the Rue du Fau- 

 bourg St. Honore. This park was laid out so long ago as 

 1778 for Philip Egalite as an " English garden/-* and passed 

 through various changes, till it at last fell into the hands of 

 the Municipality of Paris, a very astute corporation, who 

 have converted it into a charming garden^ and are not likely 

 to part with it in a hurry. 



The system of planting adopted here as well as in the 

 other gardens of the city is often striking, often beautifal, 

 and not unfrequently bad. It is striking when you see a 

 number of that fine showy tree, Acer Negundo variegata, 

 arranged in one great oval mass, silvery and bright ; it is 

 beautiful when you see some spots with single specimens 

 and tasteful beds, every one differing from its neighbour ; 

 and bad when you meet with about a thousand plants of 

 one variety stretched around a collection of shrubs, or 

 flopped down in one large mass, or when a number of plants 

 too tender for the climate are put out for the summer 

 months amidst those that grow with the greatest luxuriance. 

 " The subtropical system will never do for England \" say 



