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hurdles, as hui-dles not wattled are not found sufficient to prevent the wind from tearing
up a thatching of such'light materials as straAV or sea-weed. In six weeks or two months
after sowing, tho broom seeds will be found to liave produced plants six inches high,
and in the course of a year they Avill be two feet high, though the Pinaster plants will
probably not be more than thi-ee inclies liigh, and it is seven or eight years before tliey
overtop the broom, which on these downs often attains a height of ten or twelve feet.
When the pines are about twelve yeai-s old, they have generally suffocated the broom
plants, and it is found necessary to thin them out, when the young pines cut down are
used for the purpose of thatching downs not yet recovered, while the thicker parts of the
stems and roots are burnt for making ta r and charcoal, the self-sown seeds having furnished
the downs with a progeny to succeed them. In 1811 a commission, appointed
by the Fi'ench government to examine these downs, foimd on them twelve tliousand five
hundi-ed acres of thiiviug plantations. These plantations, and others in the Landes of
Bordeaux, and between that city and Bayonne, arc there called pignadas, and constitute
the chief riches of the inhabitants, who are almost entirely supported by the preparation
of turpentine, resin, tar, pitch, and charcoal, from the Pinaster forests. (Arb. B r it, vol.
iv. p. 2221.) The pine forest of Hagcnau is supposed to consist of a superior variety
o f P inus sylvéstris, and the seeds are collected for the principal seedsmen of France,
Holland, and Germany. (Gard. Mag., vol. v. p. 67.) The Pin u s Laancio, a native of
the island of Corsica, and of whicb there are in that island immense forests, is said to
grow faster than the Scotch pine, even in England. (Gard. Mag., vol. i. p. 79.)
274. The idea o f cultivating and naturalising foreign trees in France Avas first projected
by Du Hamel, in the time of Louis XV. He procured many seeds from America, raised
them in the royal nui^eries, and distributed them among his friends. A vast plantation
o f exotic trees Avas then made at St. Gerniain-en-Laye by the Maréchal de Noailles.
Lamoignon natiu-alised on his estate at Malesherbes a great number of these trees ; and,
at the age of eighty-four, Deleuze observes, saw spread generally in France plants of bis
OAvn introduction. M. Vihnoriu has also formed extensive plantations on liis estate at
Ban-es, near Nogent.
2 7 5 . Hedges a r e n o t in g e n e r a l u s e in F r a n c e ; th e p l a n t s em p lo y e d in fie ld -h e d g e s ,
in th e n o r th e r n p a r ts , a r e th e haAVthorn a n d th e b irc li ; o r a m ix tu r e o f n a tiv e sh ru b s ,
a s th e h a z e l, b r ia r , l a b u rn um , &c. I n o rn am e n t a l h e d g e s th e F r e n c h h a v e a tt a in e d
g r e a t p e r fe c tio n ; fo r th e s e th e fa v o u id te p l a n t s a r c th e y ew , th e h o rn b e am , a n d th e b o x ;
a n d fo r t a l l h e d g e s , th e lim e a n d th e elm .
276. The French planter q / * f r e e s affords excellent examples to the British arboriculturist
in the art of planting trees in lines, and, indeed, in all geometrical fonns. He
is also superior to him in his mode of preparing the soil, priming the trees, planting
them, and pruning them afterwards, in tlie case of plantations made in cities, public
Avalks, or avenue roads. In France, the British gardener may receive the same lesson
so admirably taught him in Belgium (§ 195.). “ The gardens of the peasantry, and small
proprietors in France,” says Moggiddge, “ are small ; but the latter grow many vegetables
in their open plots of land, AA’bicli, in England, arc groAvn in our best cottage gardens.
The house, hoAvever small, has invariably a vine or apidcot tree trained against it, frequently
both ; and the woodbine and the rose cluster round the door and Avindows.”
(Gard. Mag., vol. vii. p. 488.)
S u b s e c t . 5. French Gardening, as empirically practised.
277. The use o f gardens is very generalin France. Few cottagers are Avithout them,
and in the northern districts they commonly display a considerable degree of neatness,
and some fruit trees and flowers. The southern parts of the country are the least
civilised : there the gardens of the labouring class arc less attended to ; and gourds, or
melons, and Indian corn, as in Italy, are the cliief articles grown. The gardens of the
ordinary citizens and private gentlemen, in Fi'ance, are greatly inferior to those of tlic
same class in Holland or Britain ; they are seldom walled round, and rarely contain any
an-angements for foreign or tender exotics. A greenhouse, indeed, is a rare sight, and
there does not seem to exist the slightest desire for enjoying any vegetable production
either earlier or later than thefr natui’al seasons.
278. Nurseries. France long supplied a great pai-t of Europe Avith fruit trees, fr'oni
the celebrated nursery of the fathei's of the CÎiartreux, near the Luxembourg, establislied
in tbe time of Louis XIV., and including eighty acres. (Catalogue des plus exccllens
Fruits qui se cultivent chez les Chartreux, &c. 12mo, Pai'is, 1752.) That establishment
does not now exist ; but ViUe Hervé, the son of its fonner manager, has the cai'c of the
collection of fruit frees and vines in the national garden of the Luxembourg. The extensive
collection of grapes in this garden Avas formed by Chaptal, the celebrated chemist,
when minister of the interior, Avith a view to ascertain the best sorts, and distribute them
in the prorinces ; and the iruit trees were brought by the elder Hervé, from the Chartreux.
(Preface to the Cakilogue o f the Luxembourg Garden, 1814 ; Cours d ’Agriculture, 8cc. art.
Vigne.) Wlien Blaikie went to Fi'ance in 1776, there was not a nursery for timber trees
and ornamental slirubs iu the kingdom. About Vitry only a few of such forest trees were
cultivated as were used in avenues ; and so few frait trees, that the sorts were not tallied,
the cultivators, like the orange nurserymen at Nervi (p. 45.), recognising the few sorts
by the leaves and bark.
The principal nurseries in France, fo r Umber trees, hedge plants, and fru it trees, &re a t Orleans, about
ninety miles, and a tV itry , about five miles, from Paris. The growers a t Vitry are not, like the English
nurserymen, a few individuals who have acquired large capitals, but a numerous class of small proprietors,
who cultivate their own soil, and bring their trees to market in the same manner as is done
with other garden produce. The more rare articles of the trade are grown almost entirely by Paris
nurserymen, and a few others m the very largest towns ; and when the former have an order for fruit or
forest trees, they procure them from th e country, or attend the next weekly tree m arket a t Paris or
Orleans. It must be confessed that this is a very bad method of selling trees ; for, after the roots have
been two or three days exposed to th e air in severe weather, the trees, if they grow a t all, have little
chance of thriving. ^ i b
_ ViU-y may be described as a village of nurserymen; a circumstance sufficiently indicated by th e following
s i ^ s to th e public houses there : — Au rendezvous des pépiniéristes : au bon pépiniériste ; café des
pépimenstes, &c. It was estimated in 1828 that there were about 400 growers here, and a t Choisy, the
ftjo im n g village; each of whom cultivates his OAvn property, and grows trees, alternately with corn,
forage crops, and culinary vegetables, in the open or enclosed fields. Since that period, th e numbers of
nurserymen a t Vitry are nearly doubled. T h e quantity of ground covered a t a time by trees in this neighbourhood
is supposed to be nearly 4000 acres. T h e principal demand for forest trees in France is for
lining the public roads ; and they are, therefore, allowed to grow till they attain considerable size
without much trouble being taken in transplanting them, a,s in Holland. By far the greater number of
the fruit trees grown here are exposed for sale in the streets of P aris ; and the same may be said of the
shrubs and roses, of which only the more common sorts are dealt in by the nurserymen of Vitry.
279. The provincial nurseries o f France are not numerous ; the largest is that of
Messrs. Baumann, frères, at Bollwyller, on the Rhine, who deal extensively in fr-uit and
forest traes, and have a catalogue of them in Fi'ench, German, and Italian. The nursci-y
of Audibert, at Tonelle, near Tarascón, in Languedoc, is also extensive, and is noted for
fruit trees, especially figs and vines. M Audibert, being a scientific botanist, has published
a very accurate catalogue, Avith authorities for all the names and references to
publislæd figm-es of most of the fraits. The nursery of M. Gabriel Simon, at Metz, is
extensive ; and Avhen we saAv it, in 1829, he had commenced an ai'boretum. That of M.
Leroy, at Angers, is very extensive. The principal of the fruit and forest tree nurseries of
Orleans is that of Dauvesses. The principal niu'sery at Bordeaux is that of M. Catros.
Hodcll’s nursery, at Sfr'ftburg, is one of the best in the north of Fi'ance ; it contains a
general collection, and is rich in New Holland and Cape plants, American trees and
riu*ubs, and the varieties of SAvitzerlaiid. M. Hodell, jun., has been some time in England,
is a scientific botanist, and possesses an herbarium of the plants of all countries, classically
arranged. The nursery of Mesdames Bruzot at Orleans is an ancient and extensive
establishment, Avhich has long dealt extensively in timber and frait trees. The timber
tree most extensively cultÍA-ated in all the Orleans nurseries is the common birch ; and
next, the Italian and Carolina poplai's. M. Jaques (Annales de la Soc. d H o r t de Paris,
turn, ix. p. 302.) saAv in this nursei'y, iu 1831, a cut-leaved common oak, and a ciit-
Icaved lime ; also Npái'tium multiflôrum and radiàtum, grafted standard high on the
conunon labui'num ; P înus Cémbra, grafted on Pîiius sylvéstris in the herbaceous manner
: tiiis last species of grafting is generally practised a t this and most of the Orleans
nurseries. The nursery of M. Dauvesses contains the best collection of roses at Orleans,
and a great many American shrubs. The compartments in this nursei'y are
sheltered by hurdles on which arc trained fruit trees.
280. llie nursemj and seedsmen o f France supply those of England with a variety of
articles ; but the principal, or what may be considered the national articles, ai'e roses
and orange trees. Some peaches, vines, figs, and other ftiiit trees, ai'e occasionally sent to
England ; but more for the sake of introducing the sorts than for the trees. The seeds
sent fi'oni Paris to Loudon arc various ; and include floAver seeds of some kinds Avliich
ripen AA-ith difficulty in England ; seeds of pot-herbs, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, &c.,
seeds of anise, for distillation and tlie piu'poses of the confectioner, and sometimes clover,
liicern, broom, fm'ze, aud other agi'icultm-al seeds. I t appears to us that considerable
improvement could be made in the culinary vegetables of France, by simply obtaining
the seeds of the greater number of the Prassica tribe from Britain ; and, when the
tAvo coimfries shall know the horticulture of each other better, tliis and vaiious other
changes of seed, and exchanges of both seeds and practices, wiU doubtless take place.
The British nurserymen have leai'iit the greffe herhace from the French ; and the
French nurserjTuen have the British mode of perfoiming the common whip-gi'afting,
and vftious other practices, to acquire from the British. There exist in the two
countries the germs of intimate connection and extensive commerce, both in the nursery
and seed business.
_ 281. Florists’ Gardens. There are numerous florists who derate themselves exclusively
to the culture of floAvers, and supply the mai'ket with roses, lilies, stocks, and the
more common greenhouse plauts and orange fr'ecs. The latter arc very neatly grafted,