ITALY. LETTER X. 115 



place, you have on both fides of the road a coun- 

 try either tilled for agriculture, or planted rows of 

 high Italian poplars, on which you fee the clufter- 

 ing grape. Near Pozzuolo, where the road goes 

 nearer to the fhore, you fee on the broken lava- 

 cliffs of the old Solfatara volcano, to the right 

 hand, a plenty of the pijjerina birfuta Linn^i. 

 Whatever is planted for ufe grows in this country, 

 as appears in the lower and fertile fields to the 

 left, on the road to Portici ; and the caufes of this 

 uncommon fertility are evidently owing to the foft 

 climate, and to a foil fertilifed by the fomewhat 

 alkaline Vefuvian alhes, or the dung of the popu- 

 lous city. 



Pity it is, that we are fo unacquainted with the 

 plants and the natural hiftory of a kingdom, 

 which is fo remarkable for its climate and its fer- 

 tility in fcarce and ufeful plants. Calabria pro- 

 duces cotton, manna, filk, corn, oil, the fined 

 wines, fruits, and fragrant effential oils ; which, 

 at a cheap rate, in large quantities, are exported 

 from Rheggio, by Englifh, Dutch, French, and 

 other (hips. They have too Sal Gemmae, and 

 might have rich filver, copper, and iron mines, 

 as in former times fome have been begun, but 

 dropt foon after, a few excepted ; becaufe the 

 proprietors of the ground choofe rather to mifs 

 any advantage, than to give fome finall acknow- 

 I 2 ledgement 



