14 LA MORTOLA. 



Exhibition of 1878 as the material out of which their wax is 

 made. (Compare Dupont, " Les essences forestieres du Japon," 

 Paris, 1880, p. 90.) Schinopsis Lorentzii, Engler (Loxopterygium 

 Lorentzii, Grisebach), belonging to the family of the Anacardiaceae, 

 known in the Argentine Republic as the " Quebracho Colorado," 

 reminds one of the Quebracho bianco, one of the Apocynacese, 

 called Aspidosperma Quebracho, Schlechtendal, which is also a 

 native of the Argentine Republic. This latter kind of " Que- 

 bracho " excited some interest in medical circles, but the interest 

 was shortlived, and the Quebracho wood represented in this 

 garden by a young specimen of Schinopsis will owe its importance 

 in the future probably more to its tannic matter than to any 

 medicinal properties. The Mexican Solanum betaceum offers us 

 quite an agreeable fruit ; the berries are large and yellow. The fruits 

 of Visnea Mocanera, L., fil., from Teneriffe, have quite a reputa- 

 tion among the aborigines in their own country ; the plant is other- 

 wise interesting, from the fact that it is the only species of its genus 

 and grows exclusively in the Canary Isles. It is for the moment 

 impossible to demonstrate further that the Mocanera tree belongs 

 to the Ternstromiaceee, as flowers and fruit are not yet forthcoming. 

 There has already been noticed the gorgeous magnificence of 

 the flowers, which reaches its culminating point at this time of the 

 year in the thousands and thousands of roses. The dainty sprays 

 of the Rosa Banksia cover the stonework of an ancient arch close 

 to the Palazzo Orengo; its slender shoots and delicate wreaths hardly 

 seem to rest on the masonry, but climb up and wave over it. Thus 

 this exquisitely graceful arch leads into an open winding walk, 

 originally arched over by vines, which stretches in a level line 

 along the eastern side of the hill and finishes abruptly at a point 

 where the rocks slope down from the village of Mortola into the 

 bay beneath. The end of this walk forms a sort of terrace in 

 the limestone rock, which is here somewhat less friable, and is 

 adorned by the elegant bushes of Euphorbia dendroides. On the 

 left the eye roams over the olive-trees of the Valle di Latte, rises 

 to the wild rocks (" Karrenfelder ") of the Castello d'Appio, is at- 

 tracted for a moment by the fortress of Ventimiglia, which is just 

 now being gradually blown up by the orders of the Italian military 

 authorities, who are anxious to preserve peace, and finds at last a 

 resting-place in the level country around Bordighera. The latter 

 terminates in the Capo Sant Ampeglio, an unspeakably-neglected 



