and economy. The Abbé Schmidt informs us (Mag. Encyc.) that this monarch, who
had domains in every part of Fi'ance, gave the gi'eatest encouragement to the eradication
of forests, and the substitution of orcliards and Auneyai'ds. He Avas on teims of intimate
friendship Avith the Saracenic prince Haroun al Raschid, and by that means procured
for France the best sorts of pulse, melons, peaches, ligs, and other ft-uits. He desires
that fennel, rosemary, sage, rue, Avormwood, and above sixty other pot-herbs and medicinal
plants, should be cultivated ; one of these, which he calls antkyllis (thought to
be the house-leek) Avas to be planted before the gardener’s house, probably as being
a vulnerary herb.
264. Early in the sixteenth century, it Avould appear the Fi'encli had at that time
all the fruits uoav in use, excepting the pine-apple (Oliv. de Serres, and Stcph. and Lieb.).
Some remarks on the state of horticultm-e at the end of tliis century ai'e given by
Bénard (Mém. de la Soc. Agr. du Seine et Oise, 1801) and L. Deslongchamps (Bon
Jard., 1817-18). Blaikie informs us that about 1779 only tlirec sorts of melons were
groAvn in France ; viz. the netted or Maraiche, and two large sorts of poor flavour,
Blaikie introduced the cantaloupes, Avliich arc now the prevailing sorts. The pineapple
has never been successfully cultivated in Fi-ance ; it becomes sickly from exhalation,
and produces small fruit, as in Italy. But France excels all other countries in
pears and plums, and produces excellent peaches.
265. The culinanj vegetables o f France do not appear to have been increased from the
earliest period of horticultural Iiistory, with the exception of the sea-kale and the
potato. In consequence of the greater warmth of the summer, the French horticulturists
can produce crops in the open ah', Avliich in Britain require the assistance of glass ; but
the greater severity of Avinter in France renders the open ah- vegetables scai-cer at that
season than they are in England. Melons are gi'OAvn in the open air under handglasses,
as cucumbers are in Britain, as far north as Honfleur on the Seine. Grapes are
bi'ouglit to gi'cat perfection in the open ah- at Fontainebleau, by a particular mode of
planting, and training against low mud Avails, Avliich we shall describe hereafter. The
sweet potato, Convolvulus Batatas, is cultivated in several gardens in the neighbourhood
of Paris, and the tubers ai'C sold in the market and in the fruit shops. I t is also cultivated
in the south of Franco, Avhcre the shoots and leaves are reckoned excellent forage
for cows and horses, and are also used as greens and spinach. In salading and legumes
the French far excel most countries ; but in the cabbage tribe, turnips, and potatoes they
are inferior to the moistcr climates of Holland and Britain.
266. A sort o f forcing seems to have been commenced in France towai'ds the end of tho
sixteenth century. Clien-ies were ripened at Poitou by artificial heat in the sixteenth
century, by laying hot limestones on the ground under the trees, and by Avatering the
ground Avitli hot water. The fruit was obtained by the 1st of May, and sent to Paris
by post. It the foIloAving century, peas were sown in boxes, set in the sunsliine in the
daytime, and kept in tho gardener’s room in the night. They came to matm-ity about
the same time as the chenies ; and iu a letter dated the 10th of May, 1706, Madame
de Maintenon speaks of neAv peas as a rarity, wliich had been the principal talk at court
for four successive days. (Théâtre d’Agr. d’Olivier de Serres, edit. 1804.) Bénai'd infoi-ms
us, that arcades open to the south were first erected in Henry IV .’s time, for accelerating
the groAAth of peas at St. Germain en Laye ; aud that, in the end of the reign of
Louis XIV., Fagon, at the Jard iu des Plantes, constructed some hothouses Avith glass
roofs, Avliicli he warmed with stoves and ñu-naces, for the prcseiwation of tender
plants ; and Avhicli gave rise to all the hand-glasses, frames, and hothouses subsequently
erected in France. Melons and early cucumbers had been hitherto grown on
beds of dung, and covered at night Avith loose straw ; early salading was raised in pots
and boxes, exposed to the sun during the day, and placed in sheds or arbours during
the night. But Rieliard Senior, observing what Fagon had done, built for himself at
St. Germain, and aftcrwai'ds for Louis XV. at Trianon, hothouses, in which were seen,
for the first time in Fi-ance, peaches, chcmes, plums, sti-awberries, hearing fniit in the
depth of winter. In 'th e Ecole Potagère, Avi-itten about the year 1750, arc tho details
relative to these buildings.
267. French horticulture received a gi'cat accession of theoretical and practical knoAv-
ledge from the Avritings of Quintinye. Je an de Quintinye was bom at Poictiers, in 1626,
put to school among the Jesuits, took lessons in law, and afterwards travelled to Italy
with Tambonneau. Here liis taste for agriculture began, or greatly increased. He
applied to its study as a science ; and, on his return, Tambonneau committed his gardens
to his care. He attracted the attention of the court soon afterwards, and was made
director of several royal gardens during the reign of Louis XIV. He laid out a jardin
potager of thirty acres at Versailles ; the inhabitants of which, Neill observes, seem to
have imbibed fi'om him a taste for horticulture and botany ; the “ confr'crcs de St. Fiacre ”
(the tutelar saint of horticulturists), or gardeners’ lodge, held here, being-the oldest in
France. (H o rt Tour, p. 414.) Among other Avorks, Quintinye wi'ote The Complete
Gardener, translated by Evelyn, and abridged by London and Wise. He died in 1701.
After his death the king always spoke of him with regi-et, and, Switzer says, assured his
widow that the king and she were equally sufferers. Quintinye, in his Avork on fruit
trees, has developed a system of pruning wliich sui-passcd that of any prcA'ious author.
Before his time, the culture of wall or espalier trees, though ably treated of hy Le Gendrc
(Arnauld d’Andilly), often referred to by Quintinye, was little attended to ; gardens Imd
been generally surrounded by high hedges; but for these were now substituted Avails of
masoniy or of earth en pisé.
268. French horticulture, during the consulate and the empire, gained but little gi'ound.
Agriculture, however, was materially improved dm-ing the same period, in consequence of
the attention bestOAved upon it by men of science, such as Chaptal, &c., and by commercial
men and otliers, as capitalists. Bonaparte, it is said, scarcely ever bad a pineapple
on his table during tbe wliole time tbat he was at the head of the government of
F ran c e ; and we were inibrmed that there Avcrc scarcely any forced productions, excepting
mushi-ooms and salading, brought to the Parisian markets during his sway.
269. Afte r the restoration, the culture o f fr u it and culinary vegetables received a great
stimulus. Forced fruits and forced culinary vegetables are now common in all the
Parisian markets, as well as mushrooms and salading; and pine-applcs, Avhich Averc
introduced to the royal gardens at Versailles by Charles X., are now commonly to be met
with. In the Anuales de la Soc. d ’H o rt de Paris will be found monthly hsts of tho
articles brought to market, and the prices paid for th em ; from Avliich it appears, tliat in
1827, Avlicn these lists were first published, forced articles were altogether wanting, and
that they have been since increasing every yeai'. The kitclien-gai-den belonging to the
palace of Versailles was neglected for thiity years, from the commencement of the first
revolution to the accession of Charles X. In 1828 it contained notliing veiy remarkable
— and Ave observed that the pcar trees against the walls were all trained in the fan
manner ; —^but since tbat time it has improved rapidly. The forcing department of this
garden is not Avithout interest. It is coeval AAoth the palace, and occupies nearly two
English acres, originally chiefly covered witli substantially built Dutch pits, Avith stone
copings, &c. During the time of the Revolution, of Bonaparte, and of Louis XVIH.,
till 1819, it was entirely neglected; and the light doAvny seeds of the black poplars and
willoAvs of the ncighbouiing woods had sprung up from the gi'ound and from the crevises
of the Avails of the pits, and attained even a timber size. The descriptions of forcing-
houscs here used were these thi-ce : — 1st, the old massive-Avalled p its ; immediately within
the walls of which, and above the bark bed, is au earthen tube, about foui- inches in
diameter, serving as a smoke-fiue ; 2d, pits Avith Avalks behind, in imitation of BaldAvin’s,
and Avhich were built from a manuscript translation of BaldAvin’s pamphlet; and 3d,
common pineries, not unlike those of Kensington Gardens. The sorts of pines cultivated
Avere chiefly the Queen, obtained fr-om Holland, and the Eiiville, from E n g lan d ; and, in
1829, M. Massey, the head gardener, visited London, in search of ncAv sorts, and also to
learn the mode of heating by bot water, tliough this mode is of French iirvention, and
was applied, just before the first revohition, to the hothouses in the Jardin des Plantes.
Now (1849) the French gardeners excel in their culture of pines.
After the second revolution, the gardens a t Versailles were improved by Louis Philip, and a kitchen-
garden was formed, twelve acres in extent, surrounded by a broad terrace four or five feet higfier
than the area o fth e garden, which is still kept up. This terrace is occupied by a broad carriage walk,
and a border for the fruit trees which clothe the surrounding walls. The walls are well covered with
pear trees, peaches, and vines, and in the compartments are cultivated all the best French and l-'lemish
pears, cn pyramide et en quenouille. Alpine strawberries are also grown in this garden in great abundance,
and it is contrived that there shall be a supply of them all the year, by growing them in hotbeds
during those months when they will not ripen in the open ground. T. he. w’h o’l e of' the f' r ui"t and.. .k...i.t.c..hen.
5 occupy about th irty acres, and when visited by Mr. Thompson in March 1847, the forcing
lepartment still occupied about two acres. Most of the houses were low and long. In one long range
of houses, ten feet high a t the back, and between six and seven feet wide, peaches are trained horizontally
against the back wall, and along th e front peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries, are
forced in pots. Another forcing-housc, which Mr. Thompson found only ju st erected, was but eight
feet high at the back, four feet in front, and ten feet wide, while the length, consisting of twenty lights,
was about eighty feet. The number of pine-applos annually fruited in these gardens is immense, and,
besides innumerable smaller pits and houses, Mr. Thompson found four fruiting ranges, each a hundred
feet in length, six feet wide, and seven feet high a t the back. In one pine-house, consisting of Queens,
Mr. Thompson found the fruit nearly ripe, and of a fair size. The plants were grown in small pots in
sandy peat. “ In another house the plants were growing, not in pots, but planted in a bed of peat soil,
laid on stable litte r, well beaten, for bottom heat. They had a vigorous appearance, and will be two
years old when they m ature th e ir fruit in the ensuing summer. The Cayennes and other large sorts
were those so planted out. Some were planted out of pots into peat soil in January last, after their
fruits were formed ; the plants were thriving, and the fruits were swelling exceedingly well.” In 1840
there was a house in this garden exclusively devoted to the culture of various kinds of MClsa, but Mr,
Thompson only mentions finding one Müso Cavendishn in fruit. The vines, Mr. Thompson observes,
“ were being forced in wooden pits surrounded with dung linings. These pits were certainly of a very
cheap construction, merely some posts and boards nailed together, and only three and a half feet wide ;
b u t the quantity of grapes produced in th at limited width was astonishing. The vines were trained
horizontally along the back, which was apparently not more than three feet high. A three-inch earthen-
Avare pipe was laid along the front for hot water, supplied by means of a small boiler placed at the end
o‘'tho range.” The orange trees at Versailles are magnificent. “ Their wintcr-quarters,” Mr. Thompson
states, “ are below the terrace of the pa la c e ; consequently, they have only light in front, which, of
course, is lofty, otherwise trees thirty feet in height could not be admitted. The number of orange