of the Kingdom of Algiers, 431 



to fire on the inhabitants. The usual height of orange-trees is 

 about 30 ft.j and a grove of them covered with flowers and 

 fruit at the same time, that is, in the month of April, is a 

 splendid sight. Lemon-trees are equally common, as are also 

 sweet lemons or bergamots. The citron (in French cedrat) is 

 much less common, and is only used for making preserves : the 

 rind is more than an inch thick, and is eaten raw by the Arabs. 

 Other varieties have been introduced by the French, such as the 

 Chinois, a very small kind used for preserves, and the Mandoline, 

 a very small delicious orange from Malta introduced by Mr. 

 St. John, English Consul in Algiers. The orange-tree is gene- 

 rally brought from Genoa, although some grafts are made in the 

 country; and I possess trees sown from seeds, which after ten 

 years^ growth produced delicious oranges without grafting, not 

 a flower having been produced before that period. 



The silk mulberry-tree was not cultivated before the French 

 occupation, but has since been planted to almost an excess ; — I 

 say excess, because their leaves are left to dry on the trees instead 

 of being employed in the cultivation of the silk- worm. The silk 

 produced in Algeria has been acknowledged by a commission at 

 Lyons, appointed for the purpose of examining it, to be of a 

 superior quality, and fetches as high a price in the market as 

 some of the finest silks of the Cevennes. However, Algiers 

 possesses advantages in the rearing of silk-worms which are not 

 to be found in France. The mild temperature dispenses entirely 

 with artificial heat, and the leaves have not to dread the late 

 frosts which so frequently injure the trees in France. The black 

 mulberry is cultivated by the Moors for the sake of its fruit. 

 The caroub or locust-tree, Ceratonia Siliqua, is found wild on the 

 hills ; its wood is considered imperishable, and the fruit is sold 

 in the shops, and eaten by the natives : in southern Spain this 

 fruit is used very extensively for feeding horses and mules. This 

 tree and the wild olive-tree are the largest in the country. The 

 wild olive is the most common tree in the neighbourhood of 

 Algiers ; the fields are divided by hedges formed principally of 

 it : the olive it produces is very small, but makes excellent oil ; 

 its small size renders it too tedious to gather, and it is left to fall 

 from the tree, or become the food of starlings which visit the 

 country in winter in immense flocks. The oil consumed in 

 Algiers is brought by the Kabyles from the mountains between 

 Algiers and Bougia, and is the product of the grafted olive-tree. 



The most ordinary food of the Arabs is bread sopped in oil, 

 when they can get it. The sweet acorn, the product of the 

 Quercus Ballota, which grows to a very large size, is much used 

 as an article of food : when raw it has very much the taste of 

 chestnuts : it is either eaten in this state or boiled : the French 



