72 Gardening and Botany of Spain. 



duced great quantities of seed. I understood, too, from intel- 

 ligent persons, that the PoinciaW pulcherrima is cultivated 

 there; and I well remember seeing the Adenanthera Pavo- 

 mna, and Clementm nitida (in the Havannah called Mate), 

 with other American plants. I have no doubt, that they 

 might also rear many others producing valuable timber, as 

 the American cedar (Cedrela odorata), the mahogany tree 

 [Sw'ieicuia viahogani), and many others; but I ought not to 

 omit mentioning that, in 1823, the learned General Uriarte 

 preserved in his garden that precious insect the Cochineal, 

 which had, from the absence of the illustrious Cabriera, 

 perished in Cadiz. 



In San Lucar de Barrameda, there is a very celebrated 

 garden called Del Picacho, the property of the Marquis of 

 Saravia, a Castilian noble, who resides in Cadiz. It is, as the 

 marquis himself informed me, a symmetrical garden, orna- 

 mented with fountains and statues; many rare exotics are 

 there, among others some small trees brought from the East 

 Indies in 1819. 



In Seville, the love of flowers is as great as in Cadiz, which, 

 on entering, the traveller immediately perceives, from the 

 windows and balconies being filled with pots of Amaryllis 

 regina, belladonna, and formosissima, Polianthes tuberosa, 

 iVarcissus, tulips, and other bulbs, Yerba luisa (Aloysm citrio- 

 dora Pall.), Pelargonii, and Jasmineae. Almost every house 

 has a small flower plot, and some have rather large ones, as well 

 within the city as at the country houses in its neighbourhood. 

 The walls of the latter are generally covered with oranges, 

 lemons, citrons, and limes, all entwined and mingled with 

 each other ; but the ground is laid out with great regularity, 

 and ornamented with fountains and statues, as are almost all 

 the gardens in the peninsula. The favourite flower at Cadiz, 

 as well as throughout Spain, is the pink (Dianthus), of which 

 the varieties are infinite : the lilac, anemone, jasmine, 

 sambac, sweet basil, mirabel (Chenopodium scoparium), and 

 various succulent plants, are also greatly esteemed ; the beau- 

 tiful varieties of the poppy are also well worthy admiration, 

 especially as this plant may perhaps some day form a profit- 

 able branch of Spanish husbandry. The cultivation of the 

 Mimosa pudica, producing great quantities of seed in the 

 open air, is also very general ; and I was assured that the 

 Mimosa sensitiva is cultivated in some gardens. There is 

 no house without a few pots of Alexandrian laurel (i?uscus 

 Hypoglossum), or garden in which the sponge tree (Acacia 

 farnesiana), in Spain vulgarly called aromo (spice), is not 

 found; indeed, in the south of Spain it is almost wild. They 



