2 62 TRAVELS THROUGH 



The whole road from Siena to Florence is un- 

 doubtedly one of the moft charming in Tufcany. 

 It feems to be rather a garden walk than a read, 

 becaufe it runs between fome hills, which are 

 cloathed with olive-trees, cyprefies, different firs, 

 oaks, beeches, &c The great number of country 

 feats, old caftles, and villages, make it extremely 

 agreeable : and, to my knowledge, there is in 

 Germany nothing comparable to it, except, per- 

 haps, the country between Meiffen and Drefden t 

 which is extremely beautiful, though it be of a 

 fmaller extent, and planted with lefs variety of 

 trees and greens. 



I mail at prefent continue my accounts of 

 Florence, which I began, and for a great part 

 have fent you, as on my way to Rome I hap- 

 pened to be in this place. 



The Spital of S. Maria Nttova is a well-ordered 

 eftablimment ; to which is annexed a fchool of 

 phyfic and furgery, a library, an anatomical thea- 

 tre, a botanic garden and a difpenfary. Doctor 

 Ranieri Maffei, a young man of parts, teaches 

 anatomy. Abbate Giovanni Lapi is public lec- 

 turer of botany, member of the Florentine bo- 

 tanic and ceconomical focieties, and infpector of 

 the botanic-garden belonging to this hofpital. He 

 is a Ikilful botanift, and adopts the Linnean fyflem, 

 whofe excellence appears in its prefent univerfal 



applaufe* 



