CHAPTER XIII. 



SPRING IN THE RIVIERA. 



EW parts of the earth are so rich in wild flowers as 

 the country round Mentone, known as " Les Alpes 

 Maritimes.'" The land, where cultivation is possible, 

 has been dug over from a time when the Druids 

 ruled in Britain ; and every step taken beneath the 

 olive trees is on ground 



" Where once a garden smiled, 

 And now where many a garden flower grows wild — " 



Tulips and lilies, myrtles and orchids and anemones, whose stamens, 

 through generations of high feeding, have become converted into 

 brilliant-coloured petals. The variety of the plants is quite as 

 remarkable as their colour. The great pea family has four times as 

 many representative species in "Les Alpes Maritimes " as are to be 

 found in the British Isles ; and the vast plains of Bengal probably 

 do not contain one-half the number of plants which a resident of 



