VEGETATION OF TIIE BIVIEBA, ETC. 137 



evergreen vegetation more highly developed, in none does it hold 

 a more important place in the landscape than in the region now 

 before us. 



It is not, however, only the evergreens strictly indigenous to 

 the country which by their effect in the landscape convey an 

 impression of something essentially different from the vegetation 

 of the north. Many have from very remote periods become 

 objects of cultivation ; and the olive, the orange, and the lemon 

 are scarcely less important in their influence on the scenery than 

 the trees which spring spontaneously from the soil. 



The weight of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that the 

 native country of the olive is in the south-eastern parts of the 

 Mediterranean area, from w r hieh it was carried westward into the 

 districts where it is now cultivated. It is true that there occurs 

 here a wild form of the olive ; but it is probable that this has only 

 escaped from cultivation. Certain it is that the orange and the 

 lemon are of oriental origin, and owe their present existence in 

 Provence, Spain, and other western stations to the agency of 

 man. 



In the region now under review, the olive forms in the land- 

 scape one of its most striking and characteristic elements ; and 

 whether clothing the hill-side or stretching along a line of coast 

 w r ith glimpses here and there of the deep blue of the Mediterra- 

 nean caught through its greyish-green foliage, it gives rise to a 

 combination of picturesque effects from which the scenery of the 

 Riviera derives one of its greatest charms. The form of the olive 

 is much modified by cultivation, and the usual rounded contour of 

 the trees is in great measure the result of the lopping to which 

 they are subjected with the view of rendering the fruit more abun- 

 dant. "Where, however, this excessive pruning is not adopted, 

 and the tree left more to its natural growth, it attains a much more 

 considerable height ; and the pendulous branches, with their rich 

 masses of foliage, give to it then an aspect singularly graceful and 

 striking. 



With the sombre vegetation of the olive, the bright green 

 lustrous foliage of the orange and the lemon forms a well-marked 

 contrast. The lemon has a more limited range than the orange, 

 and it is only in the hottest and most sheltered spots of the coast 

 that it can be cultivated wdth advantage ; while the area even of 

 the orange is an exceedingly narrow one in comparison with that 

 of the olive. In their altitudinal range the orange and the lemon 



