UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 201 



ing straw for the fine Florence or Leghorn hats ; 

 and they earn a great deal of money, which they 

 are permitted to lay by for their dower ; but out 

 of this they pay a certain allowance to poor 

 women, who do their share of the farm work. 

 He was assured that a crop of two acres would 

 supply straw sufficient for the whole manufacture 

 of hats in Tuscany. It is the stalk of beardless 

 wheat, cut before it is quite ripe ; and the poverty 

 of the soil, which is never manured, keeps it 

 white. 



Between Pisa and the sea, he passed through 

 a forest of ilex. The leaves of all these trees 

 were bitten off at the same height just twelve 

 feet from the ground ; and, on inquiry, he found 

 that they had been eaten by camels. He soon 

 after saw two hundred of these animals lying on 

 the sand, waiting to return into the wood as the 

 day became hotter. He was much amused by 

 a group who rose up as he approached, and 

 who, in trotting off with their young, bounded 

 and leaped about with a vivacity which scarcely 

 seemed to belong to their awkward-looking 

 figure. It is said that this Asiatic race of 

 camels was brought into Italy, at the time of 

 the Crusades, by the Grand Prior of Pisa. 

 Mr. L. says they do most of the farm labour. 



On this plain he saw also a herd of nearly 

 two thousand cattle. The cows are so wild and 

 fierce, that it is impossible to milk them ; and 



