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.