342 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



first two countries they especially abound in Al- 

 garve, and in the fine plains of Andalusia, on the 

 banks of the Guadalquivir. The latter is the place 

 from which the bitter, or Seville, oranges are chiefly 

 obtained. In Algarve and Andalusia the orange- 

 trees are of great size ; and extensive orchards of 

 oranges have formed the principal revenue of the 

 monks for several centuries. In Cordova, the seat 

 of Moorish grandeur and luxury, there are orange 

 trees still remaining, Avhich are considered to be six 

 or seven hundred years old : and in that province, 

 whose craggy mountains are covered with gardens, 

 and vineyards, and forests abounding in fruit, the 

 flowers of the orange fill the air with their perfume, 

 and lead the imagination back to those days which 

 the Moorish poets and historians delight in describing, 

 when the land which they conquered was adorned 

 with all the refinements of their taste and intelligence, 

 and the luxuries of the East were naturalized in the 

 most delicious regions of the South. The trunks of 

 the old trees of Cordova have begun to decay ; and 

 when they get diseased, they are crusted with a kind 

 of lichen, which is supposed to be peculiar to the 

 orange. In France, the orange country is chiefly 

 Provence, or that part of the south which lies to the 

 eastward of the Rhone ; and plantations or groves of 

 oranges are the most abundant and the most beau- 

 tiful on the banks of the Var, and especially in the 

 environs of Nice, where the species are very many, 

 and come to great perfection. To the west of the 

 Rhone, the country along the coast is flat, sandy, and 

 barren ; and on the plains of Languedoc, that lie 

 interior of this barren tract, the olive thrives better 

 than the orange, apparently because there are no 

 secondary mountains between the cold heights of the 

 Cevennes and the plains. The country to the east- 

 ward of the Rhone is much better adapted for choice 



