210 
THE FLORIST. 
on enormous quantity of small frames, made from old ship timber, and 
not painted; the lights are about 3 feet 6 inches wide. These are placed 
upon hot-beds, with a hot-water pipe to run along the front of them, 
and in these are forced Strawberries, French Beans, Melons, and young 
Pine plants. This department is of immense extent here, and they 
have the manure from 200 cavalry horses. The soil of all the French 
kitchen gardens is very rich in manure; in fact, they seem lavish of it 
in this way—robbing the farm for the benefit of the garden. 
In the culinary department Escarolle or Batavian Endive was 
largely grown, as also Spinach and Cardoons. I saw some fine single 
plants of Strawberries here grown a la Anglais, while every other bed 
which I met with was run together in a glorious medley. Asparagus 
is here grown largely, and of the finest quality, for the imperial table. 
The mode of cultivation I will here describe; it is for the Asperge 
Blanche, or Large White Asparagus. 
The ground is highly manured and deeply trenched, commixing the 
manure well and thoroughly with the soil. It is then divided into beds 
3 feet 6 inches wide, with Wo feet alleys between them. On these beds 
two rows of Asparagus are planted, two feet apart. These receive the 
ordinary culture till autumn, after being planted two feet apart in the 
row in March. At that season they receive another heavy coat of 
manure, and a foot of soil is taken from the alleys and superimposed 
upon the beds. In the following autumn they are fit for forcing, and 
produce the largest Asparagus ; the shoots which I saw were very fine, 
notwithstanding that the beds were a perfect chaos of weeds six inches 
high, while every alley was hoed and raked in the most fastidious style 
of neatness. In the market gardens of Paris, where Asparagus is grown 
on the same plan for forcing, the soil is immensely rich, but they do 
not grow weeds, as is the case in the imperial garden; they 'are too 
good economists. 
Most certainly, the French excel us in the culture of this plant, but 
I am doubtfal if they do so from superior skill. Their climate assists 
mainly in elaborating the sap in that degree which produces these very 
fine Asparagus branches. 
One of the most remarkable features in French gardening is the very 
homely manner in which their houses are constructed; another, the 
effect produced by the most common plants often repeated, as the 
Marigold, &c.; and the third is the utter absence of order and 
neatness throughout every department (excepting always the pretty 
garden of the Tuilleries). But I am digressing too far. 
Unfortunately the grand fountains of Versailles had ceased to play 
before my visit, and instead of my seeing mermaids and Tritons with 
wet and dishevelled locks, I found them as dry as a brilliant October sun 
could make them, each of them having a dry smile, and seeming to say, 
“ Oh! you’re too late for the fair.” I therefore sought consolation in 
the labyrinth of vistas, arcades, and borceaux of this wonderful place, 
and was richly rewarded in seeing the magnificent Orange trees in the 
old greenhouse under the terrace, which are unsurpassed for beauty, 
grandeur, and antiquity. 
