200 Miscellanies. 



found who would purchase it with silver at any price. We there- 

 fore resolved on making the most of our time by an early excursion 

 in the morning, previous to setting out on our return. 



" We accordingly got up at day break, and proceeded to visit the 

 spot where the plants were cultivated. We were much struck with 

 the variety of the appearance of the plants : some of the shrubs 

 scarcely rose to the height of a cubit above the ground, and those 

 were so very bushy that the hand could not be thrust between the 

 branches. They were also very thickly covered with leaves, but 

 these were very small, scarcely above | of an inch long. In the 

 same bed were other plants, with stems four feet high, far less 

 branchy, and with leaves IJ to 2 inches in length. The pro- 

 duce of great and small was said to be equal. The distance from 

 centre to centre of the plants was about 4^ feet, and the plants 

 seemed to average about two feet in diameter. Though the ground 

 was not terraced, it was formed into beds that were partly levelled. 

 These were perfectly well dressed, as in garden cultivation, and 

 each little plantation was surrounded by a low stone fence, and a 

 trench. There was no shade, but the places selected for the culti- 

 vation were generally in the hollows of hills, where there was a good 

 deal of shelter on two sides, and the slope comparatively easy. I 

 should reckon the site of the highest plantations we visited to be 

 about 700 feet above the plain, but those we saw at half that height, 

 and even less, appeared more thriving, probably from having some- 

 what better soil, though the best is little more than mere sand. I 

 have taken specimens from three or four gardens. Contrary to what 

 we had been told the preceding night, I found that each garden had 

 its little nursery, where the plants were growing to the height of 

 four or five inches, as closely set as they could stand ; from which I 

 conceive that the plant requires absolutely a free soil, not wet, and 

 not clayey, but of a texture that will retain moisture ; and the best 

 site is one not so low as that at which water is apt to spring from the 

 sides of a hill, nor so high as to be exposed to the violence of stormy 

 weather. There is no use in attempting to cultivate the plant on 

 an easterly exposure, though it is sufficiently hardy to bear almost 

 any degree of dry cold." — Ih. 



Note. — Since the notes on p. 36 were printed, Dr. Kirtland has become satisfied 

 from the anatomical structure of the animals, that the H. fiiliginosa and H. gla- 

 phyra, are distinct species. 



