174 Remarks on the Climate, Situation, and [Sept.- 



requires a warra climate ; thus the olive and orange trees may 

 serve as useful subjects in this respect for the south of France. 

 About Aix and Nismes the olive is but a humble, lean-looking 

 bush, or standard, from about four to 10 or 12 feet high, requir- 

 ing the use of the pruning knife to bring it into condition for a 

 crop every other year : at Marseilles it increases in stature, 

 appearing as a small tree ; at Nice it becomes a fine thick tree, 

 about 20 or 30 feet in height, bearing annually, and apparently 

 but seldom pruned ; and about two miles to the east of Nice, 

 near the town of Villefranche, a situation peculiarly sheltered 

 and exposed to the south, this tree appears to great perfection, 

 and affords an excellent, hard, and close-grained timber, which 

 is a good deal worked by the cabinet-makers arid carpenters at 

 Nice. Again, the orange tree flourishes and brings its fruit to 

 perfection in the plain of Nice (some few of them under shelter 

 of Mont Cimiez I should guess were from 25 to 30 feet high) ; 

 the fruit is still finer in flavour and earlier matured at Ville- 

 franche ; the tree is also well cultivated and in high perfection 

 at Hyeres, though I understand that at Toulon, about nine miles 

 only distant, it requires the shelter of a wall, and at Marseilles 

 the shelter of a greenhouse in winter. And even in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Nice, it might in the same manner be observed, 

 that some situations were much more eligible than others in 

 point of shelter and warmth, though not so evident at first sight. 

 After a visit by a very cold, bleak, and violent mistrale in the 

 month called April, its mischievous effects were very observable 

 upon the tender vine shoots as well as upon the young green 

 leaves of the mulberry trees, in shrivelling them as if they had 

 been burned, leaving but a poor prospect for the next vintage, 

 and throwing back considerably the ensuing crop of silk. I 

 observed these effects particularly between Antibes and the 

 valley of the Var ; also in many situations in the valleys about 

 Nice, which ran north and south ; but in other places on the 

 south sides of the hills, the mulberry trees mostly escaped unin- 

 jured, and in some instances were to be seen in a flourishing 

 state at a little distance from others which were blasted, but 

 which had riot been so protected. The most protected situation 

 about Nice appeared to me to be the south side of Mont Cimiez, 

 or the plain between it and the shore, which includes the Croix 

 de Marbre, a quarter the most frequented by the English. Ville- 

 franche is undoubtedly a warmer and more sheltered spot, but 

 it is a place not to be compared to Nice for accommodations, or 

 even the necessaries of life, at which place the now frequent 

 visits of our countrymen for the benefit of the climate have 

 afforded the inhabitants the opportunity of learning English 

 wants and comforts. With respect to our consumptive patients 

 visiting so distant a spot for the benefit for the climate, it 

 appeared clear that unless they decide to go there at such an 

 early stage of the disease when they are able to take the air 



