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Toe DauMaTIAN Coast. 
Starting from Trieste on one of the various steamers by which 
one may go as far south as Cattaro, rounding the peninsula of Istria 
-and touching at various coast towns and islands on the Adriatic, I 
had an opportunity of seeing the gardens at Trieste, Spalato, 
Ragusa, Cattaro, Abbazia and Fiume, and occasionally of seeing 
_the native vegetation as well. 
On the whole the ornamental gardening of this part of Austria- 
Hungary cannot be compared with that of the French and Italian 
Riviera or that of Lake Maggiore, in the use of exotic trees and 
shrubs. There is, however, enough to show that, given the will 
and the means, the best gardens of the Mediterranean region might 
be rivalled. It is, of course, chiefly a matter of money and skill. 
At present comparatively few English people visit it, but efforts are, I 
believe, to be made by the stéamship companies and others to bring 
the beauties of this coast into greater prominence. In association 
with these efforts it would pay the local authorities of the more 
important towns to engage men trained in the Riviera to superintend 
the public gardens and to introduce the plants which add so much 
to natural attractions, even on the N. Mediterranean littoral. 
' As showing the nature of the climate at Ragusa, for instance, 
there may be mentioned a group of Washingtonia robusta 40 to 50 ft. 
high, fine Oleanders, Pittosporum Tobira, Eucalyptus globulus, the 
‘variegated Yucca aloifolia, Opuntias, Cycas revoluta, and the Loquat 
‘fruiting freely. An interesting feature of the streets are old trees 
of white mulberry with rugged trunks 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter. On 
the cliffs about the town Agave americana appears to be naturalised : 
its tall flower-stems, in various stages of development or decay, 
standing out against the sky, form one of the most lasting mental 
pictures the visitor carries away from Ragusa. 
On the hills behind the town the landscape was enlivened with 
the flowers of a shrubby broom-like plant—Calycotome infesta, a 
close ally of Cytisus and Genista, bearing its yellow, pea-shaped 
‘blossoms in great profusion. This shrub (too tender for our gardens) 
is, as its specific name suggests, regarded as a pest more than any- 
thing else in Dalmatia, its long, stiff, sharp spines impeding in many 
places the progress of man and beast. 
- At Gravosa (the port of Ragusa) one saw the Oriental plane in 
something like its native splendour. Not far from the quay is an 
immense tree with a trunk 6 ft. in diameter near the base, and clear 
-of branches for 20 ft. up. 
Close to Ragusa and within half an hour’s row is the Isle of 
Lacroma, worth visiting for the sake of the rich native vegetation 
that covers it and for the old gardens attached to the monastery of 
San Marco—a 12th century foundation. The native plants make a 
dense thicket all over the island, scarcely penetrable in many places. 
