The Parks, Promenades & Gardens Of Paris Described And Considered In Relation To The Wants Of Our Own Cities And Of Public And Private Gardens

London: John Murray, 1869., 1869. 8vo. pp. xxxii, 644. 49 wood-engraved plates (incl. frontis.), 3 folding plans, & 378 text illus. (incl. 2 on title). A nice copy in original black, gilt & blind-stamped cloth (extremities slightly frayed, rear joint slightly rubbed). First Edition. Robinson, a landscape gardener and horticultural journalist, was for a time on the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden in Regent's Park, and was elected as a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1866, one of his sponsors being Charles Darwin. The present work is based on observations made during his visit to France in 1867 to report on the horticultural parts of the Exhibition in Paris for the Times and several other periodicals. Robinson saw much to admire and emulate in the monumental replanning of the centre of Paris in the 1850's and 1860's that saw the creation of many new public parks and gardens, squares, and boulevards. He examines the various public parks and gardens including the Bois de Boulogne, the Parc Monceau, the Luxembourg gardens, the public squares of Batignolles, Belleville, Louvois, &c., as well as private gardens and cemeteries, and urges a similar regeneration of London and other English cities. He lists appropriate trees, shrubs, tropical plants, annuals and perennials for public use, and points out the superiority of fruit culture and market gardening in Paris and its environs, and the ways in which the British might improve their own practice and likewise obtain excellent results by the adoption of French methods of budding, grafting, pruning and training, and cultivating of mushrooms, lettuce, asparagus, and other vegetables. There is a chapter dealing with garden implements, machinery, and furniture, and one describing a horticultural tour through parts of France: Lyons, Dijon, Nantes, Rouen, Troyes, &c.. F. Hardcover.