He recommended the flower of the spilanthus brasiliana, which our nurserymen call Verbesina acmella as an excellent dentifrice.
I also found here the amethystea, cœrulea: this annual has been lost in England above twenty years.[13]
The datura fastuosa, the French call Trompette du jugement à trois fleurs l'une dans l'autre; I have myself raised these with triple flowers, both purple and white, though some of our nurserymen pretended the flowers were never more than double. The anthemis arabica, a very singular and pretty annual. A zinnia hybrida, which last has not yet been cultivated in England. Twenty-two sorts of medicago polymorpha, (snails and hedgehogs) of these I had seen only four in England.
Here was a small single moss-rose plant, in a pot, which is the only one I ever saw in France. The air is too hot for those roses, and for the same reason none of the American plants, such as the magnolia (tulip tree) kalmia, &c. thrive in France, though kept in pots in the shade and well watered; the heat of the atmosphere dries the trunk of these trees. But there are many other plants, to the growth of which the climate is much more favourable than it is in England. In the open part of this garden are a great number of bignonia-catalpa trees, which were then in flower, resembling horse-chesnut flowers at a distance, but much larger and more beautiful; and many nerium oleander trees, in wooden chests; several of these trees are about eight feet high and the trunk a foot in diameter; they were then full of flowers of all the sorts, single and double, red and white; these are placed in the green-house in the winter.
On a mount in this garden is a meridien sonnant (sounding meridian) this is an iron mortar which holds four pounds of gunpowder, it is loaded every morning, and exactly at noon the sun discharges the piece by means of a burning glass, so placed that the focus at that moment fires the powder in the touch-hole. The first meridian that was made of this kind is in the garden of the Palais Royal, at the top of one of the houses; I could not see it, but it is thus described in the Paris Guide: "The touch-hole of the cannon is two inches long and half a line (the twentieth part of an inch) broad, this length is placed in the direction of the meridian line. Two transoms or cross-staves placed vertically on a horizontal plane, support a lens or burning glass, which, by their means, is fixed according to the sun's height monthly, so as to cause the focus to be exactly over the touch-hole at noon. It is said to have been invented by Rousseau." Small meridians of this sort are sold in the shops; these are dials of about a foot square, engraven on marble, with a little brass cannon and a lens.
The market for plants and flowers in pots, and for nosegays, is kept on the Quai de la Megisserie, twice a week, very early in the morning; the following were the most abundant: Nerium double flowering pomegranate, vinca rosea, (Madagascar periwinkle) prickly lantana, peruvian heliotropium (turnsole) tuberoses, with very large and numerous single and double flowers, and very great quantities of common sweet basil, which is much used in cookery.
I visited the apothecaries garden, and also two or three nursery gardens in that neighbourhood, but found nothing remarkable in them.
There are many gardens in the environs of Paris which are worthy of notice, but I was prevented from seeing them in consequence of the disturbances hereafter mentioned. In the books which describe these places, I find the village of Montreuil-sous-le-Bois particularly mentioned on account of its fertility. In the Tableau de Paris it is said, "Three acres of ground produce to the proprietor twenty thousand livres annually, (near 800 guineas.) The rent of an acre is six hundred livres, and the king's tax sixty (together about six and twenty guineas.) The peaches which are produced here are the finest in the world, and are sometimes sold for a crown a piece. When a prince has given a splendid entertainment, three hundred Louis d'ors worth of these fruits have been eaten." It is situated on a hill, just above Vincennes, about three miles from the fauxbourg Saint Antoine, and is likewise celebrated for its grapes, strawberries, all sorts of wall fruit, pease, and every kind of esculent vegetables. In the garden called Mouceaux which belongs to the ci-devant Duke of Orleans; at the extremity of the fauxbourg du Roule are, it is said, magnificent hot-houses, of which I have no recollection, though I was in the garden in 1776. There is a description of these gardens in print, with sixteen copper plates. In the Luxembourg gardens only common annuals were growing, such as marigolds, sun-flowers, &c. probably self sown; neither were there in the Tuileries gardens, which I afterwards saw, any remarkable plants.
I bought very large peaches in the markets at 30 sous each, the ordinary ones were at 10 sols. The melons (which are brought to market in waggons, piled up like turnips in England) were all of the netted sort, and of so little flavor, that they would not be worth cultivating, were it not for the sake of cooling the mouth in hot weather; they were sold at 15 or 20 sous each. Strawberries were still plentiful (second week in August.) Cerneaux, which are the kernel of green walnuts, were just coming into season.
I had now no opportunity of acquiring any more knowledge of the plants in France, and shall only add, that I passed the winter of 1783 and 1784, at Marseille and at Hieres; and that besides oranges, lemons, cedras, [14] pistachios, pomegranates, and a few date palm trees, I found several species of geranium, myrtles, and cactus opuntia, (Indian fig) growing in the soil, and likewise the mimosa farnesiana, sweet scented sponge tree, or fragrant acacia, the flowers of which are there called fleurs de cassier; these flowers, together with those of the jasmine, and those which fall from the orange and lemon trees, are sold to the perfumers of Provence and Languedoc.