539 



CHAPTER XXV. 



" Went out at early morning, when the air 

 Is delicate with some last starry touch, 

 To wander through the Market-place of Flowers 

 (The prettiest haunt in Paris), and make sure 

 At worst that there were roses in the world." 



E. B. Browning. 



FLOWER^ FRUIT^ AND VEGETABLE MARKETS LIST OF PLACES 



IN WHICH THE MORE INSTRUCTIVE FEATURES OF PRACTICAL 

 HORTICULTURE MAY BE SEEN — THE CLIMATES OF PARIS AND 

 LONDON COMPARED. 



Something about the markets is surely not out of place in 

 a book on the gardens of Paris^ for all places where the pro- 

 duce of gardens is to be seen in its fullest perfection ought 

 assuredly to be as interesting as any garden,, and so they 

 are when orderly and spacious enough to be seen by others 

 than the porters and small tradesmen who force their way 

 in daily. No garden in existence possesses half the interest 

 of the flower^ fruit, and vegetable departments of the fine 

 Halles Centrales, and it is an interest that is perpetual, for 

 every day brings its fresh materials, every week its changes 

 of supply. About twelve o^clock at night, before Paris has 

 gone to bed, the growers have already arrived on the spot 

 and begin to expose their freshly gathered produce in the 

 market or on the wide footways of the streets around, and 

 for eighteen hours after that time the whole scene is one of 

 animation and bustle. 



There is no market where wholesale business is better 

 arranged or more expeditiously done than here ; but 

 what interests us most are the provisions made for the 

 retail trade — for the purchases of the general pubUc. 

 In Paris far more than in London it is the custom to 

 go or send to the market daily in every class of house, 

 rich or poor. Thus they are not dependent on the 



