PREFACE. 



the outward symbolism of religion : they are enshrined 

 in the literatures of Eome and Greece and Palestine, 

 and associated with the progress of mankind. To 

 lose sight of this would be to do scanty justice to 

 the subject. 



Fault has been found with these little sketches 

 on the score of unconventionally and naivete. It is 

 a curious coincidence that Alphonse Karr, a classic 

 (I must not say another classic) of the Riviera, was 

 also somewhat unconventional and not quite free 

 from naivete. Possibly the climate may have some- 

 thing to do with it ! In order that the reader may 

 know the worst, I will mention one or two other short- 

 comings. Some plants (Castanea, for instance) are 

 worthy of a longer account than I have given of them : 

 others I have been compelled to omit altogether. 

 Instead of one chapter, I should have liked to write 

 half-a-dozen about the butterflies. But, whatever 

 may be its imperfections, this is, I believe, the only book 

 dealing in a general way with the Natural History of 

 the Riviera. Of course I have but touched on a very 

 small part of a vast field. The Geology alone would 

 form an interesting volume : and much might be 

 written about the beetles, spiders, dragon-flies, 

 land-shells, &c. 



The district is changing rapidly. The spread of 

 the towns, the disforesting of the hills, and other 

 causes are conspiring to destroy many of the 



