of the Neighbourhood of Hyeres, 195 



veyed in a continual stream. This stream, which is called in 

 the patois of the country, " beal," constitutes the value of the 

 land ; when supplied with one of these streams, an arpent of 

 land is worth 480/. ; when deprived of it, nothing. The 

 orange does not ripen until many months after the fall of the 

 flower : if it is allowed to remain on the tree until the next 

 period of flowering, it loses its juice. The fruit, immediately 

 gathered from the tree, has a sharp taste, and should be 

 allowed two or three days to acquire an agreeable flavour. 

 The oranges ripened at Hyeres are generally sent to Lyons 

 and Paris, and other towns in the north of France; the in- 

 habitants of the south making use of the fruit ripened at 

 Malta, Sicily, or Majorca. Although the oranges from these 

 last-mentioned places are of a much superior flavour, yet the 

 fruit grown at Hyeres resists much better the effects of 

 carriage, being of a much finer texture: they are gathered 

 at the time when the first yellow spot appears upon the 

 rind. 



I would fain speak of the silvery olive tree, which, under 

 this propitious climate, attains sometimes the age of 700 

 years ; but, as Hyeres is not more benefited from the culti- 

 vation of this tree than many other parts of the south of 

 France, I will pass on to its more peculiar treasures, which 

 consist of the great number of tropical plants which are 

 acclimatised in this favoured spot. The most remarkable of 

 these are Melaleuca linarifolia, w r hich is 30 ft. high, and was 

 entirely covered with its feathery white flowers at the time 

 we visited Hyeres ; Acacia Julibrissin, which has reached the 

 height of 40 ft., and whose stem is 4 ft. in circumference : 

 Casuarina equisetifolia is at present 38 ft. high, although it was 

 cut down in 1819, after having suffered from the frost, being 

 at that time six years old: Cassia corymbosa, 16 ft. high, 

 six years old, bears fertile grains, flowering in September: 

 Pittosporum sinense, 15 ft. high, twenty years old, and flowers 

 in April. Amongst a number of other plants that flourish in 

 the open ground in the garden of M. Rautonnet, may be 

 mentioned, Acacia tomentosa, 1 5 ft. high ; Lauras Persea, 

 4 ft. high ; Bambusa arundinacea, Andropogon squamosus, 

 Psidium aromaticum and pyriferum, Acacia farnesiana and 

 echinula, the latter of which was raised from seed in the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Toulon : Musa paradisiaca, Canna angusti- 

 folia, Gnidia simplex, Datura arborea, Lantana Camara, 

 Polygala flexuosa, Grewia orientalis, Csesalpinia echinata and 

 Sappan, Menispermum laurifolium, Solanum auriculatum and 

 betaceum, the latter of which is 7 ft. high, and produces eat- 

 able fruit ; Hibiscus Rosa sinensis, Mespilus japonica, which, 



