20 LA MORTOLA. 



able herbaceous species, viz. Euphorbia falcata, L. ; E. serrata, L. ; 

 E. CharaciaSy L., and E. segetalis. On the shore there are whole 

 hedges of A triplex Halimus, L. Pancratium maritimum, L., is far 

 seldomer met with than Urginea Scilla, Steinheil (Scilla maritima, 

 L.) ; the latter is planted thickly round the fig-trees, but neither of 

 them is yet in blossom. A real adornment to the Riviera at this 

 time of the year is the Allium Neapolitanum, Cirillo, so much the 

 more as, though this garlic resembles the northern Allium ursi- 

 num, the garlic smell is weak in comparison : in fact great bunches 

 of cut plants do not emit so strong a smell as a single bulb of the 

 latter. The pretty white flower-heads of the Allium Neapolitanum, 

 which keeps very well for a few days, are cut in great masses as 

 soon as they are about to open, and sent from Mentone to London 

 and Paris, where they are great favourites in the salons about 

 Easter time ; in England they are appropriately called " Star of 

 Bethlehem." 



The handful of native-growing plants just mentioned gives just 

 as poor an idea of the entire Ligurian flora as the preceding 

 pages do of the riches of this garden, and of the wonderful col- 

 lection of foreign plants which it contains. Visitors coming at 

 another time of the year to this beautiful garden may not perhaps 

 receive the same impressions, but nobody will deny that the 

 Palazzo Orengo is one of the most exquisite spots along the whole 

 picturesquely -beautiful coast of the sunny Riviera. The clever 

 botanist, Prof. O. Penzig^ of Modena, has been commissioned by 

 the proprietor to prepare a manuscript catalogue of the plants in 

 this garden : a glance at this already extensive work gives one a 

 little idea of the astounding riches contained in it. 



About 2000 years ago Strabo and Diodorus described the 

 Ligurians as very poor people, whose land consisted chiefly of 

 forest and meadow: wine and olive -oil had to be imported. 

 Wonderful as have been the efforts of the generations which have 

 given to the Riviera her present lovely appearance, we must still 

 recognise the nearly total disappearance of the forests as a great 

 misfortune ; for to this circumstance the trying dryness of the 

 atmosphere is most certainly nearly entirely owing. Besides 

 which, an amount of forest -land would greatly help here, as in 

 most other places, to heighten the beauty of the country. 



1 He has also written an article on Mr. Hanbury's garden in the " Bulletino della 

 Societa Toscana di Orticoltura," 1883, which the writer of these pages has not seen. 



