1.6 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



article of food. Virgil recommends the young twigs as a 

 food for goats, and celebrates their use in basket-work. 



The Laurel-leaved Arbutus, Arbutus laurifotia, is a 

 native of North America : it is very like the Common 

 Arbutus ; one of the chief distinctions is in the flowers 

 of this turning all the same way. 



The Oriental Arbutus, Arbutus Andrachne^ some- 

 times called simply the Andrachne, is also very similar 

 to the common species : the bark is smoother, and the 

 leaves are larger. It grows naturally in the East, parti- 

 cularly about Magnesia, where it is so plentiful as to be 

 the principal fuel of the inhabitants : it grows to a middle 

 size, with irregular branches ; the blossoms are like those 

 of the Common Arbutus, only not so numerous; the 

 fruit, also, is of the same colour and consistence. 



Wheeler observed this tree near Athens, and saw the 

 fruit sold at the market in Smyrna. 



Evelyn complains of the neglect shown to the Arbutus 

 in his time: to the Arbutus, " which grows such a 

 goodly tree, patient of our clime, unless the weather be 

 very severe : it may be contrived into beautiful palisades, 

 and is ever verdant. I am told this tree grows to a large 

 size on Mount Atlas, and other countries. 11 



Sibthorpe, travelling in the Isle of Athos, says, in his 

 way to the monastery of St. Paul, he passed " through 

 a beautiful shrubbery of Kermes oaks, mixed with Ar- 

 butus and Andrachne : those trees, now laden with ripe 

 fruit, made a beautiful appearance, and, with the smooth 

 polished bark and shining laurel leaves of the Andrachne, 

 were highly ornamental*. 11 



* See Travels in the East, edited by R. Walpole, M. A., being a 

 continuation of Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey ; 

 Sibthorpe's Journal, page 61. 



