e spot, and arranged by the designer's skill
in such a manner as to produce the most striking and splendid effect. Some
of these trees were of seventy and others of eighty years growth. Being
skilfully taken up they were placed carefully in carriages, conveyed over
a space of from three to four miles in extent, transported on rafts across
both the rivers, and on being replanted in the island, so favourable were
both soil and vegetation in that genial climate, that they immediately
struck root, and even bore fruit during the first year after their removal.

Louis XIV. who, by the good efforts of the learned Jesuits, had been
taught that the practice of transplanting was well known to the Greeks and
Romans, resolved to rival, and if possible, to eclipse whatever had been
achieved in this art by these distinguished nations. Accordingly, among
the stupendous changes made on the face of nature at Versailles and other
royal residences, immense trees were taken up by the roots, erected on
carriages, and removed at the royal will and pleasure. Almost the whole
Bois de Boulogne was in this way said to be transported from Versailles to
its present site, a distance of about two leagues and a half. To order the
march of an army was the effort of common men, and every day commanders;
to order the removal of a forest seemed to suit the magnificent conception
of a prince, who, in all his enterprises, affected to act upon a scale
immeasurably greater than that of his contemporaries. In the Bois de
Boulogne, in spite of military devastation, the curious eye may still
distinguish, in the rectilinear disposition of the trees, the traces of
this extraordinary achievement.

At Potsdam, Frederick II., and at Warsaw, the last king of Poland
transferred some thousands of large trees, in order to embellish the royal
gardens at those places; and at Lazenki, in the suburbs of Warsaw, the far
famed and unfortunate Stanislaus laid out the palace and grounds in a
style of luxuriance and magnificence which has, perhaps, never been
surpassed since the days of the Roman emperors. To add to the charm of
this favourite spot, he removed some thousands of trees and bushes with
which the gardens and the park were adorned; both were frequently thrown
open to the public, and on these occasions, entertainments of unexampled
splendour and gaiety were given to the court and to the principal
inhabitants of the capital, which are still recollected with feelings of