344 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of the orange ; and where, with all this richness, the 

 pestilent airs of the tropics, and even the sirocco of 

 the southern parts of Italy, are altogether unknown. 

 This delightful fertility and fragrance accompany the 

 chain of the Apennines round the whole gulph of 

 Genoa, and until, upon the boundary of the plain of 

 Tuscany, they subside in elevation, and bend more 

 toward the Adriatic. 



Tuscany is further to the south ; but the climate 

 and the vegetation cannot be compared to those of 

 the little valleys of Provence and Liguria, especially 

 the latter. About Florence, there are still orange- 

 trees in the gardens ; but there are none of those 

 aromatic groves and plantations which are found 

 further to the west. Nor are the causes difficult to 

 find out. There is an enemy on each side of the 

 plain of Tuscany, which will not allow the orange to 

 arrive at perfection. The gales that come from the 

 south-east, over the sandy shores near Leghorn, are 

 not adapted for a plant which, as well as heat and 

 pure air, requires a considerable quantity of moisture; 

 and the winds from the north, that are cooled in 

 passing over the Adriatic, are not so genial as those 

 from the Alps, that are warmed in passing over the 

 vale of Lombardy. But still the olives, the grapes, 

 and the melons of the vale of the Arno, in so far 

 compensate the inhabitants for the want of the 

 orange. 



Eastward of Tuscany, though the coast of Italy 

 inclines still further to the south, it is even less 

 adapted for the production of the orange ; the sea- 

 coast is barren, the interior is dreary, and over the 

 whole the pestilent malaria creeps, forbidding man 

 to approach even for the cultivation of the fields ; 

 and thus it may be that, ere long, the arid downs by 

 the sea will meet the marsh of the interior, and the 

 centre of Italy shall be desolation to the very base 



