Oct. 4th. Arrived at Valenciennes, a good sized town: here another passport was furnished, and my former one taken from me, and retained by the police until the evening I left Paris. The country between Brussells and Valenciennes, as far as I could observe, appeared to be of considerable sameness, but the ground was well cultivated, with good crops of rape clover; the turnip was evidently a failure here, and in other parts of the continent, as well as in England.
We arrived at Cambray at two o'clock, a strong fortified town. The country from Brussells hitherto appeared to be but very thinly planted, and of little picturesque scenery: as we approached Paris there appeared very few plantations or trees worthy of notice, and much less variety of scenery than I passed through in the latter part of my tour through Germany.
Oct. 5th. Arrived at Paris at half-past ten o'clock, a.m. after a ride of twenty-four hours. On my arrival I proceeded to the Gardens of the Tuilleries, where there is a large collection of orange trees, and several capacious gravel walks, or avenues, with numerous ornamental groups of sculpture. A space of ground, running parallel to the palace, about sixty yards wide, has been lately laid out with flower borders, and is separated from the public promenade by a grass ha-ha, with a slight wire fence on the top of it; in this inclosure are some very fine orange trees, bronze figures, and ornamental sculpture, arranged along the edges of the walks.
A very fine walk leads from the palace towards a piece of water at the entrance from the Place Louis XV., where there are various groups of sculpture and terrace walks, which have a very imposing effect. The walks and flower borders in the promenade were in very neat order, and the triangular pieces of grass not so roughly kept as some I had previously seen about the seats of royalty. The walk or road leading from the Place Louis XV. to the magnificent arch now nearly completed on the rising ground near to the Barrier Neuilly, has a fine effect, and the prospect from this arch, which is much elevated above the town, is very grand.
Oct. 6th. This morning I proceeded to the seed establishment of Messrs. Andrieux and Vilmorin, to whom I had a letter of introduction from Mr. Lawson, of Edinburgh; these gentlemen very kindly furnished me with a note of the various gardens and objects most worthy of notice.
I then proceeded to the Jardin des Plantes, where I was much gratified with numerous fine specimens from all quarters of the globe. Mr. W. Douglas, a young man lately sent to this garden from Chatsworth by the Duke of Devonshire, conducted me through the various departments. I was much pleased with the elegant appearance of two very fine houses that were then nearly completed, one of which was just receiving the plants.
These houses are seventy-two feet long each by forty-two feet wide, and about fifty feet high; the space where the tubes stand is sunk about six feet under the floor or foot-path level, so that the whole of the tubs, boxes, and pots may be concealed, and the plants have the appearance of being planted out in the border. There is a very handsome marble cistern about the centre of the house for supplying the plants with water. These houses consist of a double span roof, are constructed with iron bars, and heated by steam; the under-ground work is very judiciously arranged: it appeared from the excavations that were here proceeding, that the range of glass was to extend to the Galerie d' Histoire Naturelle. There are numerous other hothouses on different elevations well stocked with healthy plants, one of which is devoted to Succulentæ, where I observed several fine specimens of Cacteæ. The curvilinear iron bar appeared to be the favourite material used for the erection of plant-houses in this establishment, which must evidently be the most economical and substantial for large houses. I observed this bar used in various parts of Belgium and Germany, where they apprehended no fear of the breakage of glass by expansion or contraction, although the frost is much more intense in those countries than in this.
I here saw a very fine plant of the Araucaria Cunninghamia, which appeared to be from nine to ten feet high, beautifully feathered from the pot to the top. The Araucariæ excelsæ were tall plants, but evidently drawn up, and had been too much confined, as they were not feathered equal to the specimens at Baron Rothschild's and at Prince de Ligne's. The ground in this far-famed Jardin des Plantes appeared to be too contracted for the various purposes that it is devoted to. An enclosed apartment is under a nursery of trees and shrubs, another for hardy herbaceous plants, and one planted with a collection of the various fruits, particularly of pears, in beds about four or five feet wide, with four feet in width of paths between them; these beds were covered with short dung, to prevent the roots of the trees from becoming too dry. The fruit was, unfortunately, all gathered, so that I had not the pleasure of seeing the various sorts that are here cultivated: nearly adjoining to the fruit tree department is the zoological establishment, with a very numerous collection of animals. The museum of natural history is situated at the extremity of the new range of hothouses; the collection of birds, minerals, quadrupeds, shells, &c. is really astonishing: there are also numerous specimens of Fungi preserved in one of the departments.
I next visited the nursery garden of M. Noisette, which is well stocked with Camellias and stove plants; the former had numerous seed vessels perfecting on them. The small low hothouses are in a very dilapidated condition, and the plants in a crowded state for want of more room; although there is a great extent of glass, such as it is. The grounds are likewise crowded with fir trees, which were evidently planted for shelter and shade from the effects of the sun, but they give the ground a cheerless and contracted appearance.
I next proceeded to the vegetable garden of M. de Coufle, which is considered amongst the best in the neighbourhood of Paris for culinary forcing, but I saw but very little in it at this season of the year at all worthy of a visit.