THWAKTED PLANS. 241 



gathered the jonquil and the narcissus. The common palm 

 (Phoenix dactylifera) grows so luxuriantly in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cambrils, that twenty or thirty stems are frequently 

 grouped so thickly together as to present an impenetrable 

 barrier. As white palm-leaves are much in request for the 

 decoration of the churches, it is common in Valencia to encase 

 the young shoots of the date-palm in a sort of conical cap, 

 made of the Spanish feather-grass (Stipa tenacissima\ so 

 that the young leaves, being excluded from the light, should 

 come out blanched. The basin in which the town of Valencia 

 lies is not surpassed in any part ef Europe for luxuriance of 

 vegetation. The sight of these palms, pomegranates, carobs, 

 and mallows makes one feel as if one had never before seen trees, 

 or foliage. In the middle of January the thermometer stood 

 in the shade at 72. The flowers were almost all over. 



' I shall attempt no description of the ruins at Tarragona, 

 the mountain near Murviedro, nor the remains of ancient 

 Sagentum with its temple of Diana, enormous amphithea- 

 tre, and tower of Hercules, commanding an extensive view 

 over the sea, Cape Cullera, and Valencia, the towers of 

 which are seen to rise from a forest of date-palms. While 

 you poor creatures can scarcely keep yourselves warm, I 

 am walking with heated brow among fragrant orange groves 

 and over fields which, irrigated by a thousand canals, yield five 

 crops in the course of a year namely, rice, wheat, hemp, peas, 

 and cotton. Amid such luxuriance of vegetation, and sur- 

 rounded by a race of such remarkable beauty, one willingly 

 forgets the fatigues of travel and the discomforts of the inns, 

 where we have never once met with bread. Even close to 

 the coast the country is everywhere highly cultivated. In 

 Catalonia the industry of the people is as remarkable as in 

 Holland. In every village some occupation is going on, 

 weaving or ship-building, no one seems to be idle. Nowhere 

 in Europe, perhaps, has the culture of land been brought to 

 greater perfection than in the district between Valencia 

 and Castellon de la Plana ; yet sixty miles inland the country 

 is a perfect desert. The interior is in reality the summit 

 of a chain of mountains which remained standing from 

 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea when all else was engulphed 



VOL. i. K 



