VEGETATION OF THE BIVIEEA. 139 



Ilex, the Arbutus or the Bay, it is the form of arborescent vege- 

 tation which contributes most to the wooding of the hills and to 

 the character of the landscape. 



Among the coniferous trees which form a prominent feature 

 in the landscape of Provence, the Italian Cypress (Cupressus 

 sempervirens) must be especially mentioned. Its very distinct 

 porte, springing, as it does, from the ground in a lofty tapering 

 spire of intensely dark green foliage, places it in striking contrast 

 with every other tree form. It is usually planted on the plain 

 in picturesque groups, by which the eye is led to the far-off 

 wooded hills by a succession of distances which no other object 

 in the landscape could so efficiently supply. Occasionally it is 

 planted singly among the olive-woods on the hill-side ; and then 

 the tall spires of the cypress, with the green of the foliage almost 

 black in its intensity, offer a contrast with the low, rolling, greyish- 

 green masses of the olive-wood above which they tower, greater 

 than perhaps can be found between any other two forms of 

 exogenous arborescent vegetation. 



"With the evergreen trees of the hills are associated some whose 

 leaves fall on the approach of winter. Among these one of the 

 most frequent and striking is a variety of our northern Oak 

 (Quercus Hobur), whose young leaves clothed with a reddish-brown 

 pubescence form a well-marked contrast with the darker tints of 

 the surrounding evergreens, and become an additional element of 

 beauty in the woods. In other trees, again, of deciduous habit 

 it is the flowers rather than the foliage which exert the chief 

 influence on the landscape ; and in early spring the Judas tree 

 (Cercis Siliquastrum), introduced from Western Asia, covers its 

 leafless branches with masses of rosy-purple flowers ; while the 

 cultivated lands are made bright by the delicate pink of the 

 Almond-blossom, and a little later the Peach-tree flushes the 

 country with its deeper rose. 



But besides the proper arborescent vegetation there are hosts 

 of evergreen shrubs which, no less than the true trees, enter into 

 the composition of the landscape. Even where the hills are well 

 wooded, the ground beneath the trees gives origin to an abundant 

 underwood. In many places, especially about Hyeres, this is 

 mainly composed of the prickly evergreen bushes of the Kermes 

 Oak (Quercus coccifera), which, though assuming in more eastern 

 countries an arborescent habit, remains in this part of the Riviera 

 in the condition of a shrub some three or four feet in height. 



LINN. JOITBN. BOTANY, VOL. XVIII. M 



