14 
THE FLORIST. 
do not practise towards strangers as they do, but which is charmingly 
grateful to the person on whom it is bestowed. If the French alliance 
were dependant on the sympathies of English and French gardeners, it 
would indeed be perfectly safe. 
In my way home I called upon M. Vilmorin, the extensive seedsman, 
who kindly gave me introductions to see several market-gardens, and 
showed me a portfolio containing beautiful drawings of esculent 
vegetables. In the evening I went to see the shops in the Palais Royal, 
and was much pleased with the taste displayed in their arrangement— 
the merest tinsel was wrought up into charming effect by the harmony 
and contrast of colour. 
Another day I visited the Jardin des Plantes, and was much struck 
with the beauty of some of the Palms and stove plants ; but, generally 
speaking, the plants seemed fit for the faggot-pile. It is a strictly 
Botanic Garden, and, like those in England, prides itself in having 
what is called, par excellence^ a specimen of every known plant, which 
consists of a few mop-like leaves protruding from the summit of a 
long naked pole. For many years these have been root-pruned, and 
repotted in indifferent soil, and then huddled very thickly together, 
while scale and mealy-bug infest them ad libitum. One great cause of 
this evil in Botanic Gardens is that it is generally contrived to pay the 
professors well, while scanty funds are appropriated to the remuneration 
of the curator and his staff of men, which is always too small. The 
munificence of the worthy professor at Oxford is, however, worthy of all 
honour, for he has spent much money of his own in improving that 
establishment, and is to the rule a bright and most honourable 
exception. 
I was most civilly treated by M. Nieuman and M. Cappe, the gardeners 
here. There are here a number of most beautifully pyramidally trained 
Pear-trees, under the management of the latter gentleman, who is an 
enthusiast in Pear culture, or his trees could not be in the state in 
which they are They are all “ brought up in the way they should 
go,” and when they are old are not allowed “ to depart from it.” 
This garden ranks very highly as a scientific institution, and has a 
large number of zoological specimens also; but it is arranged in the 
quaint old style, and modern improvements might be introduced with 
advantage. 
Market Gardens, &c. 
The first commercial garden which I visited was the seed ground of 
M. Vilmorin. It is in the heart of Paris. Here I saw the different 
kinds of Thunbergias ripening their seeds out in the open air, and 
several kinds of Maurandyas doing the same. This circumstance 
speaks volumes in favour of their climate. Here, too, I saw the 
Dioscorea, with roots not larger than I have them at Nimeham after 
two years’ cultivation, but mine were pushed along in early spring in a 
hothouse, so as to lengthen the season of growth. M. Vilmorin says that 
in their climate it will require the two years’ growth to bring it to a 
useful size; we may therefore take our leave of it as an article of 
general consumption. It may do for a dish (and a very good one) at 
