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less than three years after planting. The frost and cold 

 weather so prevalent in winter in such parts of the world 

 as California, Florida, and the Mediterranean basin make 

 us realise how superior our climate is to all the above 

 mentioned, for here such a thing as a frost below 2000 

 feet above sea level is an unheard of thing, and yet in 

 summer the maximum temperatures are much below that re- 

 corded in all the climates alluded to. No wonder these 

 were called by the ancients the Fortunate Islands. I beg 

 to inclose three small packets of Echium seeds, E. pinin- 

 a?ia, E. wildpretii, and E. perezii Sprague. The last is a 

 new species which I had sent you about two years ago under 

 the mistaken name of E. pininana* It is very like E. wild- 

 pretii. You ought to endeavor to raise plants of E. pinin- 

 ana which is a very rare plant indeed. All these plants 

 are very remarkable, being most ornamental and attractive 

 to bees and some of them as I have told you before are 

 good forage. Since I speak of bees allow me to call your 

 attention to our mountain broom, Cytisus supranubius , also 

 called Cytisus fragrans, which is, as far as I know, the 

 plant that gives the best honey In the world. Its habitat 

 is the high plateau of Tenerife, surrounding the Peak, and 

 it grows between 6000 and 10000 feet above the sea level 

 in an excessively dry climate, with very cold nights and 

 hot days. The winter temperature often falls at night to 

 10 Cent, below zero. I venture to suggest that this 

 plant can be tried in many parts of California, where 

 there are frosts. Oddly enough it has the same habitat as 

 Echium wildpretii, which as I have told you before is the 

 hardiest of our Echiums." 



