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_.
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