cally 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
wer