OF THE SOUTH OP EUROPE. 53 



Megara to Corinth, the road suddenly rises towards the Isthmus, and 

 we enter a forest of these Pines. On the right rocks rise ; and the 

 mountains, up which the road winds, become higher and more preci- 

 pitous. The narrow arm of the sea and bay is almost closed by the 

 island Salamis, which, now deserted and uninhabited, lifts up its in- 

 numerable mountain peaks. The road hangs over the sea, upon the 

 edge of a lofty precipice, and would create giddiness did not a friendly 

 hedge of Mastic protect from danger as also its apprehension, and 

 permit us to enjoy without anxiety the beauties of the prospect. The 

 traces of walls are still seen amongst the rocks. Here dwelt, in re- 

 mote antiquity, the bandit Pityocarapos, who bound the unfortunate 

 wretches that fell into his hands between two Fir trees bent down- 

 wards together, and killed them by this dreadful death. This story 

 is not improbable ; for those Firs are low : with ours it would have 

 been impossible. 



In the Morea this tree is not numerous, and it is found only upon 

 the northern coasts. The valleys of Epidaurus are adorned with it, 

 as are also the mountains of Mgina. It is most beautiful at the foot 

 of the elevated Cellene towards the sea, and upon the rough banks of 

 the river Xylocastro, which falls down from the mountains, it be- 

 comes a beautiful tree with a broad crown. On the southern coast 

 of the Morea it is rare, and the western coast is occupied by the Pi- 

 nus halepensis. 



The three Pines — P. Pinaster, P. halejiensis, and P. mari- 

 tima — characterize three regions of southern Europe, from east to 

 west : and the same is the case with three Oaks. In Spain and 

 Portugal is found the Oak which bears edible acorns, and which 

 was well known to the ancients. Desfontaines re-discovered it upon 

 the mountains of Algiers, and called it Quercus ballota : and Count 

 Hoffmannsegg and myself were the first to inform botanists that it 

 grows in Spain and Portugal ; but that, for the sake of its fruit, it 

 is cultivated near Pontelegre, in Portugal, in forests, and these acorns 

 are roasted with chesnuts and sold at the gates of Madrid. In Italy 

 a different Oak is found, with edible fruit, and which M. Zcnore, sin- 

 gularly enough, considers a variety of our Oak, Quercus peduncidata. 

 And in Greece, lastly, we find the Quercus cegilops, the tall, slender, 

 and beautiful Vellanida, the Arcadian Oak, the fruit of which the 

 ancient Arcadians — the ^aXa»i<fiicyoi ay\ts of the Pythia — eat, and the 

 cup of which, by the name of " knopper," is carried to Germany. 

 The last is the Oak which bears the gall-nuts, Q. injecloria. It first 

 presents itself on the eastern edge of Greece, and becomes abundant 

 in Natolia. — VViegman's Archiv., 2, 4, 328. 



