Here and there are chateaux with old-fashioned gardens and
noble avenues, and we have only to ask permission at the porter's lodge,
to walk in and enjoy them at leisure.
In one of these the lady of the house, who was sitting out of doors,
kindly beckoned us to enter, and we had the pleasure of listening, under
some splendid oaks, to the oriole's song, and of seeing a little cluster
of Eucalyptus trees, two surprises we had not looked for. The oriole, a
well known and beautiful American bird, also a songster that may be
compared to the nightingale, is indeed no stranger here, and, having
once heard and seen him, you cannot mistake him for any other bird. His
song is an invariable prognostic of rain, as we discover on further
acquaintance.
The _Eucalyptus Globulus_, or blue gum tree, a native of Australia, and
now so successfully acclimatized in Algeria, the Cape, the Riviera, and
other countries, is said to flourish in the region of the olive only;
but we were assured by the lady of the house that it bears the frost of
these northern regions. I confess I thought her plantations looked
rather sickly, and considering that the climate is like that of Paris,
subject to short spells of severe cold in winter and sudden changes, I
doubt much in the experiment.
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