ACCLIMATIZATION. 319 
up ready for the market, at least a good plain sign-post has 
been erected to indicate the mine. 
“The Society of the Garden of Acclimatization is thus 
constituted. Its duration is restricted to forty-two years. 
Capital a million francs (£40,000), in 4000 shares of 250 
francs (£10) each. Each share gives a right to an equal 
and proportional allotment of effects, and constitutes a per¬ 
petual free ticket of admission. Part of the capital is to be 
so invested as that at the end of forty-two years the share¬ 
holders shall receive back the amount of their original 
contribution. 
“ Previous to the actual establishment of the garden, the 
committee visited and studied the gardens (Zoological and 
Botanical) of London, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Amsterdam, 
and Marseilles. The nature of the receipts is twofold :— 
1st, The sale of animals, eggs, plants, and seeds; 2nd, the 
payment of visitors. The council consists of forty mem¬ 
bers, each of whom must have not less than five shares. 
After payment of necessary expenses, a reserve fund is 
created of 150,000 francs (£6000); the surplus beyond this 
is thus divided:—Five per cent, on shares at interest; five 
per cent, as a sinking fund ; and of the remainder, half is to 
be given to the shareholders as dividend and half to the 
City of Paris as indemnity. Whilst we are on business 
topics, I may add that that the Imperial Society took a 
hundred shares, the banker is M. Rothschild, and the office 
of the garden is at present No. 19, Rue de Lille, Paris. 
“ The garden is situated in the Bois de Boulogne, just 
beyond the fashionable promenade; a broad pathway runs 
right round it. The first building that strikes the eye is the 
establishment for silkworms, where, from May to October, 
are made the various experiments on the cultivation and 
introduction of silk. By the side of the different silkworms 
feeding on the mulberry, from France, Italy, Spain, Asia 
Minor, India, China, and Japan, are seen the new species 
that have been introduced into Europe by means of the 
society, namely, the Bombyx Mylitta (silkworm feeding on 
the oak), Bombyx Arrindia (silkworm of the castor-oil plant), 
and the celebrated Ailanthus (Vers a soie de l’Ailante), the 
Bombyx Cynthia vera , about which so much has been written, 
and from which so much is expected. 
“Next in order comes the great collection of birds—not 
the mere gathering of a zoological garden, but the specimens 
only of such as are recommended either by their beauty or 
their use. Behind this building are two rows of cages, one 
used as a sort of waiting-room when regular accommodation 
