oe omer BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
out craters. All the wild shrubs go into the fire to cook the daily 
meal. The succulent cactus and the spiny century plant, fugitives 
from America, are protected from the hacking of the peasant’s knife, 
and having escaped have made themselves perfectly at home here. 
It is only in the gardens that one sees trees, and there one is struck 
by the cosmopolitan mixture. There are few natives of Italy, but 
many foreigners. The ilex oak is the hardiest of the natives, and 
the tree most often used along the avenues in the parks, but, with 
this exception and the cypresses and Judas trees, the gardeners have 
gone to other countries to get trees for adornment. A critical eye 
is at once struck by the multitude of plant types represented, and the 
marvel grows when one considers the exact habitat of the foreigners 
and the perfection of their development under cultivation here in 
Italy. This Mediterranean region is the home of the Hartlaubge- 
hélze of the warm temperate zone, with the ilex oak, European olive, 
and classic laurel among the best-known and most representative 
examples; but there are Australian trees here from within the tropics; 
trees from the cold northern forests of our own land; some from the 
deserts of Africa; and others from the mountains of Asia. They 
stand for types of all the ecological regions of SCHIMPER, except the 
Arctic and the ever rainy forests of the tropics. The soil and the 
climatic conditions seem remarkably congenial to these strangers, 
and they appear to grow as well as under the conditions native to 
them 
The Royal Botanical Garden of N aples is an admirable place for 
the study of diverse types of trees, for it furnishes many species and 
these are growing almost in a state of nature. The funds of the garden 
have been for many years too small to give them much care beyond 
that which locks the gates and gives them the chance to live. The 
whole yearly allowance for the support of the gardens, the greenhouses, 
the library, and all the force employed from the director to the gate- 
keeper is 7000 lire (about $1400). Some years ago there was some- 
times a little to be expected from the city of Naples, but the sum 
has been for many years too inadequate for what we should consider 
the actual needs of a botanical garden. One resident spoke of it 
as “a ruin twenty years ago,” but the very ruin is of deepest interest 
to a student of ecology. It shows forms from many climates mingling 
