History of Gardening in France

III. Of the Rise, Progress, and present State of Gardening in France 206. Three eras mark the gardening of France: that of Charlemagne, in the eighth; of Louis XIV., in the middle of the seventeenth; and that of the Revolution, at the end of the eighteenth, centuries. The first introduced the best fruits, and spread the use of vineyards and orchards; the second was marked by splendour in design; and the third by increased botanical and scientific knowledge, and by the diffusion of garden comforts throughout the whole mass of society.