of the Kingdom of Algiers. 431 
to fire on the inhabitants. The usual height of orange-trees is 
about 30 ft., and a grove of them covered with flowers and 
fruit at the same time, that is, in the month of April, is a 
splendid sight. Lemon-trees are equally common, as are also 
sweet lemons or bergamots. The citron (in French cédrat) is 
much less common, and is only used for making preserves: the 
rind is more than an inch thick, and is eaten raw by the Arabs. 
Other varieties have been introduced by the French, such as the 
Chinois, a very small kind used for preserves, and the Mandoline, 
a very small delicious orange from Malta introduced by Mr. 
St. John, English Consul in Algiers. 'The orange-tree is gene- 
rally brought from Genoa, although some grafts are made in the 
country; and I possess trees sown from seeds, which after ten 
years’ growth produced delicious oranges without grafting, not 
a flower having been produced before that period. 
The silk mulberry-tree was not cultivated before the French 
occupation, but has since been planted to almost an excess ;—I 
say excess, because their leaves are left to dry on the trees instead 
of being employed in the cultivation of the silk-worm. The silk 
produced in Algeria has been acknowledged by a commission at 
Lyons, appointed for the purpose of examining it, to be of a 
superior quality, and fetches as high a price im the market as 
some of the finest silks of the Cevennes. However, Algiers 
possesses advantages in the rearing of silk-worms which are not 
to be found in France. The mild temperature dispenses entirely 
with artificial heat, and the leaves have not to dread the late 
frosts which so frequently injure the trees in France. The black 
mulberry is cultivated by the Moors for the sake of its fruit. 
The caroub or locust-tree, Ceratonia Siliqua, is found wild on the 
hills; its wood is considered imperishable, and the fruit is sold 
in the shops, and eaten by the natives: in southern Spain this 
fruit is used very extensively for feeding horses and mules. This 
tree and the wild olive-tree are the largest in the country. The 
wild olive is the most common tree in the neighbourhood of 
Algiers; the fields are divided by hedges formed principally of 
it: the olive it produces is very small, but makes excellent oil; 
its small size renders it too tedious to gather, and it is left to fall 
from the tree, or become the food of starlings which visit the 
country in winter in immense flocks. The oil consumed in 
Algiers is brought by the Kabyles from the mountains between 
Algiers and Bougia, and is the product of the grafted olive-tree. 
The most ordinary food of the Arabs is bread sopped in oil, 
when they can get it. The sweet acorn, the product of the 
Quercus Ballota, which grows to a very large size, is much used 
as an article of food: when raw it has very much the taste of 
chestnuts : it is either eaten in this state or boiled: the French 
