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68
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mode of propagntini^ all herhacoous vegetables, all trees and shrubs (8)—a department which is particularly
rich in specimens of grafting and inarching (9 ); a large basin for aquatics, and aquatic birds
and reptiles, situated at the bottom of an excavation more than ton feet below the level of th e general
surface of the garden (10): the sides of this excavation are planted with marsh trees and shrubs. The
nex t divisions consist of florists’ flowers, arranged according to their colours und times of flowering (11);
medicinal plants (12); illustrations of tho operations of agriculture on plants, as the different kinds of
hedges, live fences, rows, &c. (13); all the sorts of fruit trees, vines, and fruit shrubs, which grow in the
open air in France, with different modes of pruning and training them (14); all tho sorts ot vegetables
used in rural economy throughout Europe, the more tender sorts, as the Convolvulus Batdtas, being
protected early in the season by glass (15). Tho general arrangement o f all the plants grown in France,
tender and hardy, occupies ten plots (IG); tho ciassification adopted is that ol Jussieu. The tender
species are brought from the hothouses in Juno, and plunged in their places in the beds, where they
remain till September; the hardy tree and shrub kinds arc kept dwarf by pruning, and brought into
flower by ringing. Tiic different sorts of annual plants and the mode of raising seeds of every kind, are
displayed in a large plot (18). There is a general arboretum (17); one of winter or evergreen trees (19);
of trees in perfection in autumn (20); of summer trees (21); and of spring trees.
T/icprincipal Imildinss are themenagcrio for ferocious animals (22); the conservatory (23); museum (24);
lodge for East India deer (25); Iccture-theatrc (2G); near which is situated the oihce of admini.stration
for the garden; retreat for buffaloes (27); stable for th e ¿ “ quus tribe, with pigeon-house over (28);
for eloph.-mts (30), for forciBo
oxm (37), lor red (IcorGS) for th e dromoilary (40), for parking plants (41), and for a pnlilio colfce and
milk house, situated a t the Paso ol t ic mount (38). There is a restaurateur in the spring arhoretum (21),
also ,t nnmlier ol other buildings of less note ; and so complete is this establisliment, that in some of tho
areas destined to show certain branches tor culture, there are lodges containing specimens o f all the
implements m use in that branch. {Annalesdu Mnsih’.; Royer's Dcscriviivc History (fth e Baris Garden )
I n the ofiice <]f (dimmstralum, v/hXeh is remarkably complete, is tlie botanical cabinet ( Ag. G9.), the
state ol wluch, in 1817, is thus described in tho llorticulhiral Tour-.— '' In the staircase («) is preserved
a tall palm s f tn from South Ain<‘rica, which had been naturally clasped in a
very extraordinary way by some line or twining slirub, and evidently strangled
by tlie deeply indented grasp of its invader. Professor Dcsfontainesft workmg-
room (6) adjoins, und next, the working-room for the professor’s assistants (c).
Here a respectable looking female was now employed in fixing dried specimens of
plants to sheets of white paper, after they had been arranged for that imrposo
by Professor Desfontaines. There is a room (tí) appropriated to tlu; keeping
ol the specimens of dried plants. They are contained in close presses, and so
accurately and conveniently arranged, that the specimens composing any particular
genus can be produced for examination tho moment they are called for.
Another (e) contains specimens of wood of very many species of trees, wo
believe of almost all that are figured in tho quarto volume published by Senp.
of Amsterdam, and edited by Dr. Ilouttuyn, and of many unknown to these laborious Dutchmen Tho
samples are in general smoothed with the plane, the better to display the grain, and tho extreme beauty
of some kinds. A vase, nicely formed out of tlie stem of a date-palm, is a curious object: it is about a
foot and a half in diameter, and somewliat more in height. A large apartment ( / ) , extending the whole
breadth of the building, contains the seeds and seed-vessels ot plants, with specimens of vegetable
products in general. In the same room several commodious presses and drawers are approiiriated to
th e reception of the seeds saved in the garden from the more rare or tender plants, particularly those of
only annual duration. We may add, that tlie great attention paid to tiiis part of the business of the
garden, the saving of seeds, and keeping them in tho nicest order, received our unqualified approbation.
A glazed frame, containing numerous skeletons of leaves and flowers, had a very pretty and unusual
olfect. Fronds of the great unibrella-palm of Ceylon (Córypha umbraculllcra) decorate the ceilings of
two of the rooms.” (//wrt. Tm r, p. 3.53.)
As a school of botany and vegetable adlure, the Jardin des Plantes was made wliat it is by the late
Professor Thouin, during tho first years of the consulship. Speaking with reference only to what
concerns plants and their culture, tliis garden is unquestionably the first establishment of the kind in
Europe. We have in Britain several botanic gardens, but none maintained for the same objects as tliat
of Paris. These objects are tw o : first, to collect useful or remarkable plants from every part of tiie
world, and to distribute them to every part of France, and, as far as practicable, to every other country;
ami, secondly, to fonn a perpetual scliool of botany and vegetable culture. Plants arc hrouglit to the
Paris garden from all countries, by an universal correspondence; by particular naturalists sent out a t the
expíense of the n a tio n ; and by tlie general protection and favour of government to the objects of science
il th e pursuits of scientific men. Objects of natural history destined for the Paris garden, in whatever
description of vessels they may arrive in a French port, pay no entrance duty; and they arc mostly
forwarded by government conveyances to Paris free of expense. Every warlike, exploring, or commercial
expedition is accompanied by naturalists olticially appointed, or voluntarily oflering, to wliom
every facility is afforded in tlie objects of tlicir pursuit. Plauts received in Paris arc propagated witliout
loss of time, and distributed, in the first place, to all the botanic gardens of Franco, of winch there is at
least one in the capital of every department; next, seeds or plants are sent to such of tho colonies as it
is supposed may profit most by tlnm ; and, lastly, they are sent to foreign correspondents, in proportion
to similar favours received, or returns expected. The departmental botanic gardens jiropagatc with all
rapidity tho plants received from the central garden, and distribute them among the eminent proprietors
ami cultivators of the department. This, at all events, is remarkably good in theory. Botany is taught
by tlio lectures, demonstrations, and herborisations of a professor, and illustrated by an exemplification
o f 124 orders of the Jussieuean system in living plants. A considerable number of these plants are
necessarily exotic, ami arc kept under glass during winter ; but, in May, before the demonstrations begin,
they are brought out in the pots, and sunk in the earth in their proper places in the systematic arrangement,
with their names, and th e names of tho orders to which they bidong, placed beside them. The
plants arc named on différent coloured labels : red indicating the plants used in medicine ; green, those
used as food; blue, those employed in the a rts ; yellow, ornamental plants; and black, poisonous jilants.
T h e cultivation of vegetables, and all the different operations of agriculture and gardening, are tauglit
by another professor, with assistants, and excinplificd by different eoinpartments in tho garden. For
instance, there is one compartment in whicli all the diflercnt operations on plants, ami on the soil, are
exemplified, from tho different modes of preparing tlie soil for sowing or planting, througli all the species
and varieties of propagation, training, and pruning, even to hedge-growing and fence-making: another
compartment contains all the plants of field culture; another all the medicinal plants; another all tlic
principal timber trees; another, us far as practicable, all the fruit trees. Specimens of tlio dillbrent
unjilcmcnts are kept in one building, and of the diflercnt soils, manures, and composts in an appropriate
enclosure; and so on. T h e essence of the lectures, accompanied by figures of such of the implements
and operations as admit of representation by lines, will bo found in Thotdn's Cours dc Cullure ct de.
Naturalisation des Végétaux, by his nephew, Oscar L ed e re , 3 vols. 8vo, with one quarto volume of
plates ; und a complete description of the garden is given in the well-known work ot Koycr. In Ì840,
a new and magnificent range of hothouses was erected, and tho whole of tho gardens were greatly
enlarged and improved. Ih e s e gardens were seriously injured by tho insurgents daring the civil war
of June, 1848; as the rebels had possession of the gardens for some days, when tliey cut and burnt many
of the rare trees for fuel.
25C. Among the other botanic gai-dens o f France the following are probably the mo.st
important.
The. botanic garden nftkc Trianon, according to Deleuze, was established by Louis XV., at the suggestion
of the Due de Nouilles, for the display of exotic trees, and a general collection of plants, for the
amusement o fth e royal family. Here B. de Jussieu disposed, for the first time, tho plants in tlio order
of natural families. The botanic department of this garden was, in 1828, in a state of neglect ; and some
years afterwards it was turned into a nursery.
The botanic garden o f Malmaison, in tho time of Josephine, was among the richest in Europe. Various
botanical collectors were patronised, some jointly with Lee of Hammersmith. The seeds brought lioine
by tlie navigator Baudin were here first raised, and described by Ventenat in the Jardin dc la Mahnaison,
in 1803. In 1813 Bonpland publislicd the first volume o t Plantes rares cultivées à Malmaison, which
ruined him, and compelled him to seek an asylum in America. This garden, though comparatively
neglected, contained, when visited by Neill, in 1817, some line exotic trees as standards in the open
ground, and protected in winter by moveable houses. Among these were Magnòlm grandiflòra, and an
orange tree as large as they grow in Spain. In the hothouses were many fine exotics, and tlie original
bulb of that splendid plant Brunsvlgm Josephln<p, which, in 1817, measured two feet and a half in
II 3 t