598 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
of their leisure time and of their talents to the 
promotion of its welfare. Of the honourable position 
which Mr. Barron holds in the horticultural world, 
and of the admirable manner in which he has for so 
many years fulfilled the duties of a very trying 
position as superintendent of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society’s Garden at Chiswick, we need now 
say nothing, for his name has become a household 
word among his compeers, and his good work in the 
cause of horticulture, and of the youngest of the 
horticultural charities has gained for him the esteem 
and respect of all. 
- -*• - 
THE LILAC TRADE 
IN PARIS. 
This year’s Lilac harvest promises to be truly 
plentiful, for in former years in the “ City of Light,” 
when you wanted a pennyworth of either white or 
red Lilac, you were handed, to your great disappoint¬ 
ment, two miserable-looking branches; but this 
spring quite an armful of that delicious flowering 
shrub can be obtained for the same sum of money. 
Almost every Parisian you meet is laden with the 
flower, and the best proof of its non-scarcity this 
year is the quantity of Lilac thrown outside into the 
street every morning in time for the passing dust 
cart. 
This rich yield has been quite a little fortune for the 
village Frette, some sixteen miles from Paris. The 
village itself is situated in the midst of a veritable Lilac 
forest, having an area of some i,6oo acres of barren, 
chalky soil, which during the season of three weeks 
will produce nothing else. The branches are cut, 
tied together as if sheaves of corn, and transported 
pending the night to the city ; on their arrival at the 
halles centrales or central markets, the bundles are 
untied and sprinkled with fresh water. The village 
of Frette sells yearly £2,^20 worth of Lilac ; the 
500 inhabitants either own part, or rent plots of the 
ground from the State or the Commune. When the 
Lilac season comes to an end the inhabitants fall 
back on hiring themselves as farm servants, or live 
by the produce of their river fishing ; in the- winter 
months they make mats, brooms, and beehives. 
The whole surroundings of Frette being equally a 
Lilac producing district, is much frequented by 
thieves, who help themselves freely to the flowering 
shrub. It is the same dishonesty for the environs of 
Paris. Curious to remark that in this case the most 
daring Lilac thieves have turned out to be cyclists. 
Though this may appear strange, yet on consideration 
it is not surprising, as certainly they have greater 
facility for plucking the flowers at leisure, and roll¬ 
ing away on their awaiting cycle when danger is 
sighted in the form of a park-keeper or a policeman. 
However:— 
“ He that ' steals ’ and runs away. 
May live to ■ rob ’ another day.” 
The village of Frette is, curiously enough, the 
poorest, the least looked after, and the most 
neglected in the department of the Seine-et-Oise, 
It is sufficient for the peasants of that village, who, 
as remarked, make their living mostly by Lilac 
growing—and some make a few thousand francs by 
the industry—to plant one stem of that plant in 
quite a barren field, where nothing else can be 
cultivated, to possess a most productive and 
flourishing shrub the following year. When the 
inhabitants are asked to sell part of their paradoxical 
unfruitless ground they certainly do not keep their 
buyers waiting long for a negative answer, by their 
exaggerated pretentions about the price of their 
plantations. An amusing anecdote is told of a 
cobbler who was at one time visited at Frette by a 
land surveyor on behalf of one of his clients, having 
for mission to buy a piece of ground belonging to the 
son of Crispin, having an area of only a few perches. 
He was offered by the surveyor 250 francs, or £10 
for the lot, which implied offering a price of half a 
franc, or fivepence per yard—which was a very 
reasonable offer, especially as it was next to barren 
soil. The shoemaker exclaimed in astonishment, 
”250 francs! You seem to forget that without 
any trouble at all my few perches of ground 
represent a yearly yield of Lilac for me of 150 francs; 
now the latter in twenty years represents for me a 
sum of 3,000 francs, or £120, and that is the price 
you will have to pay if you want my small plot of 
ground for your client.” 
Outside of the railway stations, especially that of 
the Great Western of France, a certain number of 
May 19, 1894. 
rowdies are to be met with offering you branches of 
Lilac at very low prices. How did they become 
possessors of the flowery shrub ? Could they be 
retail dealers ? Not at all. They simply carry on 
the trade of thieves, and thus stock themselves with 
stolen Lilac. These ambulatory sellers leave by the 
last train at night, for no matter what station, 
bound for some small village around Paris, prowl 
during the night round those large gardens having 
Lilac trees, climb to the top of walls, cut away the 
Lilac till the morning, and after pillaging thus the 
rich mansion gardens, take the first early train back 
to the city, and as soon as they reach the terminus 
begin selling their loot, even in the very arrival yard 
of the railway, where they find many innocent 
customers, who thus help them to get rid of the 
stolen property, and so save them from being 
captured as criminals. Each night they operate in 
the same way pending the duration of the Lilac 
season. 
Every Sunday afternoon, the park-keepers of the 
Bois de Boulogne, outside Paris, await the many 
people that congregate at the several exit gates, and 
politely ask them to hand or give up their twigs— 
sometimes they have respectable bundles after their 
day’s “collection.” But the keepers themselves 
confess, that notwithstanding their vigilant and vig¬ 
orous watching, they are quite unable to prevent the 
promeneiirs from trampling on the flower-beds, and 
breaking off Lilac branches. Parisians have such a 
strong passion for flowers, that nothing can stop 
their audacity in appropriating either Lilac or 
Laburnum, Acacia, etc., following the season. Those 
persons who return home on a Sunday afternoon 
from the country, carrying bunches of Lilac, etc., 
must produce on their arrival at some railway sta¬ 
tions, a laisser-passer for the tax collectors who 
stand on duty; this "pass” must be signed by the 
owner of th^ gardens with whom the travellers have 
been passing the day. But what control is there to 
prevent their increasing their bunches when passing 
through a wood on their way to the railway station. 
Those persons who cannot produce their friend’s 
pass for their “load” of lilac, the latter is taken 
from them, but no fine is inflicted, as it would be too 
troublesome to trace the origin of the loot, and of its 
owner’s identity. The confiscated property is des¬ 
troyed. Another class of forgetters of the Decalogue, 
besides bicyclists, are the rich ladies who drive, 
about in their carriages for an “ outing ” to the 
woods, and give instructions to their coachmen, 
*' when passing a good looking lilac shrub, to stop, 
alight, cut some branches off, and place them under 
the box seat.” What a serious charge against the 
fair sex ! Flowers tempt them like apples .—Ned de 
Reniwc. 
-•*—-' 
HAMPTON COURT. 
The spring bedding is now about past its best, 
although a few Tulips yet linger. The most 
prominent display consists of the numerous long 
beds of Polyanthus, which have flowered most 
profusely, but still retain sufficient to show what 
they have been. Plants a foot high and as much in 
diameter should demonstrate what could be done 
with these old-fashioned flowers even in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of London. The chief fault we have to 
find with them is that the flowers are confined to 
shades of yellow with a few white ones. We hope 
the strain will be improved with the addition of rose, 
crimson, purple, and other shades, when the beds 
are again filled with them. Some of the circular 
beds are filled with Myosotis sylvatica ; and the beds 
and borders of hardy herbaceous plants are becoming 
gay with Paeonies, Irises, Fyrethrums. Candytufts, 
Woodruff, Veronica gentianoides, Doronicums, and 
others in season. 
The walls are interesting and even gay in places 
with climbing China Roses, Clematis of several 
kinds, including some fine specimens of Clematis 
montana now covered with its myriads of white 
flowers. Several large specimens of Wistaria are 
loaded with their pale bluish blossoms; and a tall 
plant of the Banksian Rose is flowering profusely 
on the wall of the old orangery. In the beds and 
shrubberies the Rhododendrons are gay. The 
Scarlet and other Thorns are fragrant and attractive, 
taking the place of the Lilacs which are now past 
their best, except in the more sheltered and shaded 
places. The Weigelas are already in full bloom and 
Philadelphus coronarius is not very far behind. 
For the middle of May many of the things are very 
early. 
The Elizabethan garden, formal as it is, vies with 
the more modern one for attention, and attracts 
many visitors. The wall on one side of the square 
is covered with a large Wistaria in full bloom, while 
the opposite one is covered with Ivy. The narrow 
border round the sides of the lower square is one 
mass of deep purple, produced by Phlox amoena, a 
most useful spring bedding subject. Dwarf China 
Roses are also flowering in those narrow borders. 
The yellow Rock Alyssum is noticeable here, but is 
even more extensively used round the edges of the 
shrubberies in another place. Paeonies, Wallflowers, 
and Candytufts also serve to brighten the otherwise 
stony features of this antique style of gardening. 
-- 
ARAUCARIAS. 
The generic name of Araucaria is derived from a 
tribe of Chilian natives, the Araucanos Indians, who 
occupied the district where this Pine (A. imbricata) 
was first discovered in 1796. The timber of some 
varieties is valuable, while the seeds of others form 
an important article of food. Indeed, the seeds of A. 
Bidwilli, the Australian " Bunya Bunya,” are of 
sufficient importance in this respect to have been 
protected by the Queensland Government, who have 
for some years prohibited its being felled for timber. 
This grand and useful Pine is only found in a small 
district of Queensland, and the natives were in the 
habit of holding harvest festivals around them at 
certain periods, groups of trees being claimed by cer¬ 
tain families and their descendants. Both the seeds of 
A. imbricata and A. Bidwilli are crushed and made 
into bread by the natives ; while the Queenslanders 
also eat them after being placed in water sufficiently 
long to have commenced germination. I have tried 
the seed of A. imbricata when at this stage, and 
found it much sweeter; they are also far from un¬ 
pleasant when roasted similar to the sweet Chest¬ 
nut. 
An avenue of A. imbricata, formerly in our posses¬ 
sion, was one of the features in our nursery, and 
originally consisted of over 100 trees. They were 
planted between forty and fifty years back, and 
formed a splendid avenue; there are probably 
no better plants in England. This species is also 
called the Monkey’s Puzzle, on account of the diffi¬ 
culty it is presumed a monkey would have in climb¬ 
ing it. Our lads were in the habit of climbing them 
in order to collect sparrows’ eggs, several colonies of 
which persisted in building among their branches in 
spite of frequent removal. As squirrels have also 
been seen In the trees, eating the seeds that had 
lodged between or upon the points of the needles, 
this common name of Monkey’s Puzzle is a mis¬ 
nomer. It was many years before fertile seed was 
produced in this country, the trees not being grown 
in sufficient quantity to ensure the sexes meeting. 
At two different seasons I have noted a monoecious 
plant in our collection, but neither of them have 
retained this characteristic in after seasons. 
A well-shaped female tree, when loaded with 
fertilised cones, is a handsome sight, as may readily 
be imagined when I state that a cone, now before 
me, measures some 20 in. in circumference, and is 
9 in. deep. It also weighs a trifle over three pounds, 
and was procured from a tree carrying upwards of 
sixty cones. When cut green, and slightly varnished, 
they make a showy ornament. If not secured early 
enough they split up as the seed ripens. The male 
catkins of this species vary in length from 4 to 6 in., 
and like the cones, form a showy feature, being borne 
in much greater profusion than the latter. Cones 
are two years arriving at maturity, and will grow a 
fair size without fertilisation. It is during the 
second summer that their chief size and weight is 
put on, those that were not fertilised dropping off in 
the spring. In 1890 this avenue produced about 
eight bushels of good seeds, while the past autumn 
realised a little over eleven bushels. Some of the 
trees have never borne either catkins or cones, and 
the belief that emale plants formed the most 
symmetrical tree is not borne out among this collec¬ 
tion, several of each sex being of entirely different 
character as regards form and size, although all 
were planted at the same time. The seed commands 
a ready market at an average of five shillings per 
pound, but is of little value unless sown within a 
few weeks from maturity. Seeds imported when 
transit was of long duration compared to the present, 
