Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-08
RIVIERA VEGETATION.
The Interesting Notes of Nature-Lov-
ing Tourist.

from the ConServatOr.
1t seemed to me that the poets of the
south have exaggerated the beauty of the
olive tree. Indeed. I saw 10 beauty in it
at all. The leaves look as If they had been
blanched by sulphur. and the trunks of the
stumbling older trees as if they had been
hacked up with an ak The younger trees
are more graceful, but don't appeal to the
sympath of one from the land of shape
ly spruce and pines. the ash. the maple and
the elm. The splayed and yawing frag-
ments of an old olive trunk have an I'M
canny look, as of some some niglitmarish
DOre illuStra ton in Dante's Inferno The
only lemon groves | could set eyes on north
OF Naples were one OF two at Cap dAnti-
hes. and two or three near. Mentone. At
Fiesoie there was garden full of lemons
grown in big terra Gotta tubs The oranges
of the Riviera are wretched all the best
fruit, heavy and sweet juice, coming from
Spain, Sicily and Jaffa. The grounds at
Monte Carlo are full of the fragrant pit
tosporums. They scent the air around with
the very perfume of the orange blossom
only it is not at all overpowering or Of
fensively sweet but delicate and sense
quickening. like watts of fresh frosty air
We are SO used to thinking of the haw
thorne hedge as feature of English land
scape that dare say it will surprise many
to be told that the biancaspina is almost as
common in the Pisan plain and in parts of
southern Italy-especially along railway
banks-as it is in England.
Everywhere in Italy and France the trees
are pitifully mutiiated. Where they are
allowed to grow to their natural height
as they sometimes or the Italian coast
I observed they lean from the southwest,
as they do all over America. OF course
where silkworm culture Is carried on, as
between Milan and Como. it is necessary
that the mulberry trees be trained low for
convenience In picking the 1arvaes. Where
grapes are grown it is hard to tell why liv-
/ inp oyati Jtpix-a all MIA tad oyl
trimmed down support for the vines, IN
less it is that ground could not be spared
for coppices or that the fruit ripenS best IN
partial shade. In France and Germany the
vines are simply tied to upright sticks De-
scriptionS of the vine in Italy by tourists
are always vague and sentimental, and /
had wondered how in the world grapes
could ripen in the shade of large trees A
glance explained all: the trees turned nut
to be no taller than hop poles, and so trim
med TO few horizontal branches trained
iengthwise of the row that the shading was
reduced to minimum. The vines hung ia
loops festoons from slpling to sapling.
as If taking hold of hands On the foot
hills south of the Campaigns travellers may
see grape vines frown around a bunch of
the top The sapIing trees rarely more
than fifteen feet high. generally not so
much. In ore region only. and that near
Naples, did l see the vines trained on toll
erably large trees. swinging from boie to
bole. like spider webs. That the hotter sun
does not necessitate this 1 discovered by
the vineyards on the fiery southern slope of
Vesuvius. which trained low and have
scarcely any shade.