86 K AMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



words are inscribed above the entrance: 

 perlustrantibus has cedes Britanni in Sicilia, anno 

 salutis 1811. Not a word is here said of those who 

 took the initiative, who erected the first casine, 

 and who at the present day consecrate their fortune 

 to the maintenance of the casa. It would seem as 

 if Lord Forbes and his officers considered that 

 the merit of having supplied the funds necessary for 

 the completion of the edifice, gave them the right 

 of monopolising to themselves the entire credit of 

 the construction, and the undivided gratitude of tra- 

 vellers. 



After having received all necessary instructions 

 from Doctor Gemellaro, and having come to an un- 

 derstanding with the guide whom he had engaged 

 for us, we resumed our course. Nicolosi marks the 

 limit of the cultivated region on this side of Etna. 

 The last houses of the village abut upon a hill of 

 black and moving sand, where here and there a large 

 broom, with its pendent branches of golden coloured 

 corollas, rises from the dark soil around it.* Having 

 passed these, we traversed a large plateau of entirely 



* Notwithstanding their large size, these brooms belong to our 

 common species (Genista scoparia), which in these southern regions 

 attains a height of from twenty to twenty-four feet. This shrub, 

 which has been too much neglected by our horticulturists, might 

 be made very valuable in a commercial point of view from the 

 facility with which it thrives even on land which is very ill adapted 

 for the growth of trees. Its slender and flexible branches furnish 

 textile fibres, which, although they are no doubt inferior to those 

 of flax or hemp, or even to those of the Spanish broom (G. junca\ 

 might, if carefully prepared, furnish a very valuable substance for 

 the manufacture of coarse canvas and linens, and would be found 

 important from its abundance and cheapness. 



