, aware that the city has ever given birth to any
man of eminence in this department of science. Lately, indeed, the Abbe
Le Turquier Deslongchamps, a very well-informed botanist, as well as a
most excellent man, has published a _Flore des Environs de Rouen_, in
two volumes; and there are many instances in which such works have been
known to diffuse a taste, which public gardens and the lectures of
professors had in vain endeavored to excite.

The variety of soil in the vicinity of the city renders it eminently
favorable to the study of botany. It is peculiarly rich in the
_Orchideoe_ of the most beautiful and interesting families of the
vegetable kingdom. The curious _Satyrium hircinun_ is found in the
utmost profusion upon the chalky hills immediately adjoining the city;
and, at but a few miles distance, in a continuation of the same ridge,
the bare chalk, under the romantic hill of St. Adrien, is purpled with
the flowers of the _Viola Rothomagensis_, a plant scarcely known to
exist in any other place.

The suburbs of Rouen abound with nursery-grounds and gardens: the former
contribute greatly to the preservation of the genuine stock of
apple-trees, which furnish the cider, for which Normandy has for many
centuries been celebrated; the latter supply the inhabitants with the
flowers which are seen at almost every window. The square in front of
the cathedral is the principal flower-market; and the bloom and
luxuriance and variety of the plants exposed for sale, render it a most
pleasing promenade. Various species of jessamines and roses, with
oleanders, pomegranates, myrtles, egg-plants, orange and lemon trees,
the _Lilium superbum_ and _tigrinum_, _Canna Indica_, _Gladiolus
cardinalis_, _Clerodendrum fragrans_, _Datura ceratocolla_, _Clethra
alnifolia_, and _Dianthus Carthusianorum_, are to be seen in the
greatest profusion and beauty. They at once attest the care of the
cultivators, and a climate more genial than ours. None of the flowers,
however, excited my envy so much as the _Rosa moschata_, which grows
here in the open air, and diffuses its delicious fragrance from almost
every window of the town.

It is perhaps to the credit of Rouen, that science and learning appear
to flourish more kindly than the drama. The theatre of Rouen is quite
uncharacteristic of the passion which the French usually entertain for
_spectacles_. The house is shabby; the audience, as often as we have
been there, has been small; and in t