A traveller writes of the beauty of the flowers in south France:

" The profusion of violets, roses and camellias that are hawked about the streets of Nice during March and April is very attractive, and the taste with which the bouquets are arranged is very remarkable. All through the country the little children run about offering little bouquets of violets and wild flowers arranged with a taste that you would not find in Covent Garden. The white camellias are not so beautiful as what we have in our houses; they are very white, but do not open out, and have the appearance of a fuchsia with the outer petals recurved and the center petals standing upright and close together. The rose in that season appeared to me to be chiefly Safrano, of the large roses; but the masses of the yellow and white Banksian that hang down from the walls of every garden are perhaps the most striking objects at that season. The scarlet geraniums, which grow everywhere, are chiefly a nosegay of a pinkish scarlet. I have seen a hedge on the roadside at Beaulieu, six feet high, and masses hanging over the rocks on the seaside at the same place; but they grow everywhere, and are very beautiful.