Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-10
A FLOWER BOULEVARD,
The Novel Use Which Paris Has Found fl
Its Military Zone.

Zone.
Paris Correspondence of the Morning Journal
To all the wonders Of this most wonderful Of
cities, Paris is about to add flower boulevard y
Let me explain:
Paris is surrounded, for the entire eighty
miles of its circumference, by what is called
the military zone" This is a wide strip Of
land which must always be kept free Of al
buildings which cannot be removed at a few
hours notice, because Paris is a fortified
city and must have a certain space in from
OF her Notifications clear for military purposes
OF course, no manufacturer will build Oh thii
land, because he is in a position to have his
whole establishment swept away if war comes
Nothing but market gardens of the cheapest
sort, small restaurants and the cabins of squat.
tiers and interlopers are to be found in this
military Zone which causes such a surprise to
travellers who flash across it daily in express
trains. On one side of it are the huge and
frowning Notifications, on the other acres OF
vast six-story houses, built of yellowish- white
stone. The stranger asks: What means this
dilapidation and desertion just at the gates of
the great capital? And the brief answer is
Military zone"
At last an this squalid expanse Of plain and
rolling upland is to be beautiful. Paris is sim
ply going to turn the military zone into q
gigantic conservatory.
OF course if war ever comes up to the gates
of Paris again this conservatory will suffer.
But meantime the ugly blot upon the beauty of
Paris will have been suppressed.
The idea was bequeathed to the city by NJ.
Applaud, the old director Of the city's public
works, who was in Office for quarter of q GEN.
fury. The city engineers, following out his
idea, have decided to break up the horticultural
laboratory, which at present occupies a great
pl,arn Of hatx fba 7
$50 much visited by Americans every summer) /,
the Rue de Siam and the Avenue du Trocadero
Here are established the marvellous hot houses,
which have long been the envy Of all other Eu-
ropean cities. All Paris turns out once a year.
when the azaleas are in bloom, to visit these
hot houses, which cover acres and contain al
most every variety Of plant and towering shrub
under heaven. These vast Conservatives
are now to give way to two streets and
new ones are to be established on the
military zone, from Neuiily to the Porte Dau-
phine. in the first instance. This zone is
henceforth to be the great nursery from which
the public parks and squares of Paris will be
supplied with trees and flowers, and a boule-
ward will furnish an elegant promenade be-
tween the gardens and conservatories all the
way around the city. The hanging gardens of
Babylon will be dis.anced by this gigantic i'm
provement, which is to cost not less than
S4OO. 900 for the first installation OF course,
ten times that amount will be needed before
the WORK Is complete.
The gardens in which plants are prepared for
the parks will cover about fifteen acres and this
space will be quadrupled shortly. The forcing
houses are also to cover many acres and q
school will be established, in which gardeners
will be taught the delicate and difficult art of
laying out parks and gardens.
The famous la Muette establishment, now to
be broken up, was founded in 1855, after the
exposition of that year. and was in some re-
spects the outgrowth Of it. 1t was located on
the site of the ancient "Clos-Saint Georges, ~
and its thirty immense hot houses were among
the chief wonders of Europe. There was one
for the camalas, one for azaleas, one for
palms. another for ferns. There all the flowers
which ornament the Paris parks were first
called into being, aud in the vast cellars lighted
by thousands Of gas Jets, the tuberculous
plants, the tulips, the hyacinths, the narcissi,
were shielded from cold. There were accli-
mated all exotics which were susceptible Of
being acclimatized, and the chief gardener used
to say that there were few tropical plants
which he could not fit to the summer climate
Of Paris.
The heliotrope, for instance, considered
purely tropical plant. a century ago, and
which died In the highest frosts Of the north,
may now be seen at the Conservatives of La
Muette, lovely shrub seven or eight feet
high, scarcely more delicate than Q rose tree.
With the vast spaces which the military
gone Offers them what may not the Partisan
gardeners do in the line Of horticultural won
ders? A few years hence the flower boulevard
win Be in it, glory.