88 CHAPTER XL 



purpose. There are specimens in most of the 

 gardens, in the Nice Chateau grounds, at the Quatre 

 Chemins on the upper Cornice Road, and the village 

 of Contes has a group of these trees on its " Place." 

 Just at the door of the Villa (Hotel) Arson there is 

 a Melia which I used to admire when I lived close by. 

 A white rose had climbed over it, and when the two 

 plants were in flower together the combination of 

 colour was strikingly beautiful. Melia is allied to 

 the Mahogany (Swietena). The coloured filaments 

 are conflate in a tube. 



Grevillea robusta has evergreen foliage which 

 (speaking unbotanically) reminds one of certain fern 

 fronds. The orange-yellow flowers are handsome. 

 The fruit, a follicle, resembles a little black peapod 

 with long curved style. The stamens are adnate to 

 the sepals. Grevillea, with Hakea and some other 

 garden shrubs, belongs to the Proteacere, an order of 

 Australian and Cape plants not represented in 

 Europe. In the flowers of some Proteaceous plants 

 ihe nectar is so abundant as to become an article of 

 diet for the Australian aborigines. Grevillea is 

 common in gardens ; there are one or two specimens 

 on the Quai Massena, Nice. In an English nursery- 

 man's list I find the height of the Grevillea given as 

 two feet ! 



Among the trees which appear to be less culti- 

 vated of late years on the Riviera are the Ash, Ornus, 

 Maple, Negundo, and Linden. I have alluded else- 

 where to the neglect of Elm and Ostrya. 



The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) is rare in the Nice 

 valley, but the tree, or a variety of it, is abundant near 

 Cannes in the valley of the Siagne. The fort at the 



