The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-15 00:00:00

FLORA IN PARIS.

the style often runs :into what we call loud, and our
neighbours, in precise ply the same spirit, designate
as tapageux, or noisy. It was the highest ton not
long since, and may be so still, to have bouquets
sent specially from Nice, where Alphonse Karr, a
well-known novelist and satirical writer, has a
garden, and who, upon the receipt of twenty francs
or so, will send you to ?Paris a bouquet of the most
delicious violets de Panne as comfortably en-
sconced in its travelling: case as a grandee in his
own coupe. . .

The grisette, with a pot of mignionelte, or a rose
on her work table, in t'ae little chambrette, on the
floor that is next to the sky, is a picture that
Eugene Sue and other French novelists have made
familiar to the world ; and an acquaintance with
French society in general will soon explain to the
foreigner how it is that the dealers find customers
for the myriads of cut flowers and plants, which
are to be seen- at all seasons in pretty shops and
overflowing markets in almost every quarter of
the city.
All the ladies of France, from the inhabitants of
the Tuileries to the humblest cottager and domestic,
expect bouquets of flowers from relatives, admirers,
and friends, on their saints' or fete days, which
take the place of birthdays with us unsaintly Pro-
testants, and he is an unwise or an impolitic man
who neglects the gracious custom. It is true that
amongst the wealthy and extravagant the bouquets,
like the bonbons which are presented on New Year's
day, often assume the form of diamonds, pearls, or
other jewels, exquisite fans, caskets, china vases, or
other elegant and often expensive articles de luxe,
but the bouquet is still the rule, and is only ob-
served by the great mass of the people.
Paris used to be famous for her flower girls, and
some of these nymphs of flora are quite historical
personages ; no theatre, no place of public entertain-
ment, was complete without its flower girls, and
when nature added personal to floral beauty, these
young belles were almost as celebrated as the ac-

tresses, for whom many of the bouquets were pur-
chased. The idler who ate his ice, or sipped his
orgeat at the cafe, constantly found a rose or a
small bunch of violets by his glass, and saw a pair
of youthful eyes looking for the few sous which were
not often withheld ; but this custom ran into ex-
cess, and became a nuisance, and the cafe flower
girl is now rarely to be seen, except upon holidays
and fete days. A few specimens of the species only
exist at present, and their rarity adds greatly to
their renown. Isabelle, the flower girl of the
Jockey Club, as she is called, is the queen of the
present day ; no race or steeple-chase, no great
popular entertainment, at which the upper ten
thousand are to be found, is complete without
Isabelle. Another priestess of Flora, named;Anna,
was quite the rage last year at Ems and elsewhere;
but the flower girl, the true bouquetiere, is almost
extinct.

The municipal authorities of the city may almost
be said to have dethroned the poor flower girls dur•

ing the last few years ; the goddess of flowers rarely
had such devoted servants as Baron Haussmann,
the Prefect of the Seine, and the municipal coun-
cillors of the capital of France. They present all
the world with flowers, for the eye and nose, if not
for the hand, and, what is better, they do not ex-
pect any direct contribution in return. Not only
are the old Bois de Boulogne and metamorphosed
Bois de Vincennes and Champs Elysees resplendent
with flowers and flowering shrubs, amongst which
masses of rhododendrons and magnolias, brought
from Holland for the ornamentation of the last-
named promenade, deserve special mention ; but
several new public gardens and innumerable squares
have been formed, remodelled, or planted anew in
the English fashion. Amongst these the Parc Mon-
ceaux is the most charming. This place, which was
once the private property of the Orleans family,
and, for a short time during the Republic, the seat
of the•national workshops, was laid out with great
taste four or five years ago, and has ever since been
the pet garden of the city of Paris, and one of the
prettiest public pleasure-grounds in Europe. There
are several other gardens of considerable size in
various parts of the town, besides the squares formed
about the beautiful old Tower of St. Jacques, in the
Rue de Rivoli, the Museum.of Cluny, and other
public buildings, around fountains, and at the
intersections of many of the new streets and bou-
, levards.

Over all these, Flora seems to have scattered the

glittering and perfumed products of all quarters of
the globe. The public gardens of Paris present
such a mass of indigenous and exotic trees, shrubs,
and flowers nearly all the year round as no other
city can show. And all this does not exhaust the
flowery resources of the prefect and council of the
Seine, for whenever an entertainment takes place
at the Hotel de Ville, or in any other establishment
under the control of the city authorities, the con-
soles, the fire-places, the stair-cases and halls, and
almost every unoccupied corner, teem with cut
flowers and flowering plants of the greatest beauty
and in the utmost profusion.
Where do all these floral luxuries come from ?
from Algeria or from Cochin China? Does Baron
Haussmann receive tribute in the form of flowering
plants from Italy, Egypt, and Mexico ? Doubtless
the original sources are to be found in many cases
in the sultry regions of the tropics, amid primeval
forests, and where the wild man chases the still
wilder game, but the immediate source, the direct
fountain of supply, is the garden in the city of
Paris !

Few things strike the Englishman, travelling in
France for the first time, so forcibly as the absence
of cottage gardens. One may journey for hours in
almost any direction in France without seeing a
single thatch or door covered with roses, honey-
suckles, or clematis, like those which line the road
almost everywhere in Old England. In the towns,
large and small, and even in many villages, it is
almost the same. With few exceptions, the houses
stand by coldly, closely to the edge of the footpath,
without gardens, without even a foot of ground to
call their own, without a fore-court or anything
else to fence them, as it were, from the public way ;
and if any object breaks the dull monotony of their
hard stone walls, it is generally only a single climb-
ing plant, such as a glycine, a rose, or, more com-
monly than either, a vine. And yet, in spite of
this apparent neglect of the most charming deco-
ration in the world, France is a land of flowers, and
they flourish there with a luxuriance, and develope
perfumes which are only to be found in our island
in the most favoured spots.
The environs of Paris are about as devoid of
flower gardens as the country towns ; walk out of
the capital by the Arc de Triomphe, by the barrier
of Vincennes, by any road you please, and a cot-
tage standing in its own garden and glorying in its
own flowers, is as rare as an oasis in the desert.
The reason for this is generally obvious; there are
no houses and no cottages, or but few ; all the world
lives in apartments in barrack-like buildings, which
in the case of the poorer portion of the population
resembles barracks less as regards cleanliness and
wholesomeness than in anything else.

But Paris itself is redolent'of flowers. The flower
markets are amongst the sights of the French capi-
tal ; by the side of the beautiful classic Madeleine, on
the quays near the Palais de Justice, and by the
old Morgue—now rebuilt on another site—on the
Boulevards and elsewhere, Flora pours out her
Istores once, twice, or thrice a week with luxurious
pgrioadfuciseitionl,fan,d he. must be poor, indeed, who cannot
of the richtloivovedrgionowg, however humble, with a gera-
nium, a rose, or a pot of mi nionette The houses
without its jarainieurtew.i
is complete with flowers ; no. dinner table
its corbeil, no drawing room
nnsournfêtetiof any kind without
its bouquets. The consumption
every class partakes of it. PTheibis prodigious,cibueltlbouquets
viwhich
hich and
balls,
ramt every
part,
to be seen at the opera, tbeatresou
assembly, of which the fashionable fair
are composed of the choicest flowers, arranged
frequently with true artistic taste ; and every year
renders the bouquets more brilliant, more costly,
and, unfortunately, more gigantic. Ladies of cul-
tivated taste naturally choose their bouquets in har-
mony with their surroundings, not only in colour
but in size ; but as it is especially the duty of the
gentleman to provide his fair triads with flowers,

Tki E SUN, LONDON, THITRSOA.Y EVENING, MARCH 15, 1866.

added : winners extra ; the winner to be sold for 50 sovs.
About a mile and three-quarters, over eight flights of
hurdles. 8 subs.

Mr. Saunders' Jacob, aged, lOst llb (J. Knott) 1
Mr. R. Walker's Umballah, 6 yrs, 9st 101 b (Owner}) 2
Mr. R. Barker's Arbitration, aged, 9st 41b ...(Mr. Skeen 3

Veluti also ran.
Betting-5 to 4on Jacob, sto 2 agst Veluti, and 4to 1
agst Umballah.
The Great North of England Steeplechase of 10 sovs each.
sft, with 100 added ; winners extra ; the second to re-
ceive 25 sovs out of the stakes. About three miles and
a half. 27 subs.

Mr. Hudson's Meanwood, aged, lOst 91b (Page) 1
Mr. G. Walker's Pigeon, aged, 11st 1311):(Mr. J. Walker) 2
Mr. J. Foster's Foresight, 6 yrs, lOst (Waddington) 3
Betting-6 to son Pigeon.

AQUATICS.

Mr. Hardy, of the City Grounds, will give a stake for
horses in the borough of Bradford, in addition to the
customary stakes. The Bradford pets are being exercised
daily on the above grounds, and some good racing is ex-
pected.

MELTON HUNT STEEPLECHASES.—This meeting Rill
come off at Burton, near Melton, on Saturday next, the
day after Croxton Park races.

SALAMANDER.--Mr. Studd, the owner of this
horse, has won upwards of £35,000 on the Grand National
Steeplechase. The public, it is said, are not winners, as
the fact of Salamander having been backed.on Monday week
at Tattersalls' to win the owner an immense stake was
not only withheld from the London morning papers on the
following day, but Salamander's name was entirely omitted
from the list of quotations! If the: simple announcement
that Mr. Studd had backed his own horse had been pub-
lished, several of the public who know him to be a capital
judge would have followed suit, especially as they would
feel satisfied of having a "live " run for their money.