138 PROF. ALLMAN ON THE 



are limited to the plain and to the lowest region in the hills, while 

 the cultivation of the olive attains in this part^of the Eiviera an 

 altitude of 2400 feet. 



The vine is also extensively cultivated in the plains, and in the 

 hills ascends ahove the limit of the olive. During March and 

 April, however, it is destitute of leaves, and forms as yet no 

 feature of importance in the vegetation. 



But the olive and the Aurantiaceae constitute only single ele- 

 ments among the evergreen trees. At Hyeres the Cork-oak 

 (Quercus Suler) and the Evergreen Oak (Quercus Ilex) cover the 

 lower hills with an indigenous growth, and contribute, with the 

 Bay (Laurus nobilis) and the Arbutus (Arbutus TTnedo), in form- 

 ing the beautiful evergreen woods which clothe the rocky soil ; 

 while the Carrub (Ceratonia Siliqua) chiefly occurs along a narrow 

 littoral zone between Nice and Mentone, where, with its large 

 glossy, deep green, pinnate leaves and tropical aspect, it consti- 

 tutes one of the most beautiful features in the coast-line. 



Besides these evergreen trees with comparatively broad leaves, 

 the narrow acicular-leaved Conifers play an important part in the 

 physiognomy of the vegetation. 



The Stone-Pine (Pinus Pined), though here and there met with, 

 is much less frequent and characteristic than in Central and 

 Southern Italy, where, with its dark green spreading umbrella- 

 like crown, it is inseparably associated with our conception of the 

 Italian landscape. 



Far more abundant is the Pinaster (Pinus Pinaster). The 

 form of this pine met with in the hills of Provence is much 

 finer than that of the variety usually grown in England. "When 

 it has room to develop itself, and escapes the almost universal 

 practice of having all the branches within reach lopped away for 

 firewood, it forms a large and handsome tree, with its crown more 

 or less pyramidal and with its stem well furnished with branches 

 nearly to the ground. It affords a well-marked and pleasing con- 

 trast with the more rounded crown, paler and less rigid leaves, and 

 greyer bark of the Aleppo Pine (Pinus hedepensis), with which it is 

 here usually associated. This last is eminently the pine of the 

 Provence hills ; it never grows to the height of the Pinaster, and, 

 indeed, in some places retains almost a frutescent habit. Cover- 

 ing by itself alone, to the exclusion of other trees, wide tracts of 

 country, or else accompanied by the Pinaster, the Cork-oak, the 



