306 Professor Link's Contributions to the 



border the Adriatic Sea. The lavender is not an eastern plant ; 

 in Istria we find in its place the clary (Salvia officinalis), which 

 there follows the Monte Maggiore, but in Italy only grows on 

 the high mountains of the Abruzzi. 



The plain of Lombardy is a garden, where we hardly find a 

 wild vegetable production, and none which can be regarded 

 as characteristic. In the same manner hilly Istria is entirely 

 covered with planted olive trees, and it is only between them 

 that we can remark the commencement of the myrtle region. 

 The myrtle covers whole districts in Portugal, and is there a 

 particularly beautiful shrub on the banks of streams. It is dis- 

 tributed over the centre and south of Spain, and the southern 

 provinces of France, and extends to the Riviere of Genoa. It 

 is to be found every where in the States of the Church, and 

 around Naples ; and occurs throughout the whole of Istria, to 

 the very base of the Monte Maggiore. It extends a little far- 

 ther to the south, but becomes rarer and rarer ; and only sepa- 

 rate individuals grow in the north of Italy. 



Proceeding in a southerly direction from the region of myrtles, 

 we arrive at the land of the rosemary, or what may be better 

 and more definitely denominated the land of the oleander or 

 rose-bay. That shrub commences at Merida in Spain, follows 

 the course of the Guadiana to Ayamonte, where, on one occa- 

 sion, the good King Gargatai reposed in a rose-bay bush. It 

 then adorns the valleys of Algarve with its beautiful flowers, 

 while the Serra de Monchique displays the lovely blossoms of 

 the Rhododendron ponticum. We find it only in the warm val- 

 leys of Calabria and Sicily. In the Morea, after proceeding for 

 many hours along the road leading to ancient Troezene, over 

 bare and arid mountains, and exposed to the scorching sun, 

 from which but a scanty shelter is afforded by a few scattered 

 diminutive wild cherry trees (Pyrus cuneifolia), there appears 

 in the distance a long stripe of oleanders, winding, with some 

 projecting sycamores, among the mountains, a most welcome 

 sight to the thirsty and fatigued traveller ; for he is sure to find 

 a streamlet in the thicket, and the sycamores give promise of an 

 agreeable shade. 



We have now indicated the three botanical regions of Southern 



