86 Foreign Notices. — Italy and Spain. 



species. The error was very natural, but we lose no time in correcting it, 

 and also another which crept into the same Review, viz. that " Ehrenberg 

 and Hemprich in Egypt, and Sello and Olfers in the Brazils, are col- 

 lecting for the Emperor of Austria ;" — they are collecting for the King 

 of Prussia. This fact, and the circumstances noticed by Mr. Taylor in the 

 foregoing letter, show the extraordinary exertions in botany and horticul- 

 ture going forward in Prussia. — Cond. 



National Forests. A German agricultural Journal (Oekonom. Neuigkeit. 

 unci Verhandl. ; 1826, No. 48. p. 382.), contains an able paper on the inuti- 

 lity of a government's having national forests, any more than national brick- 

 kilns, or breeding farms for horses. The author concludes, that in a state 

 in which order and security prevail, and where there exists a mild and en- 

 lightened government, there can be no need for national forests, and all the 

 wood of the country will be better in the hands of private persons. This, 

 he says, is proved by the example of Austria, by reason, and by experience. 



ITALY. 



Agricultural Penance. The Curate of Montagano, in the county of 

 Molise, in the kingdom of Naples, gave as a penance to the farmers who 

 confessed to him, that they should plant so many olives, vines, or other 

 trees, in certain naked parts of the country : the consequence is, that what 

 before was a desert has now the appearance and productiveness of an 

 orchard. (Btdl. Univ. Aout, 1826.) 



Glycyrrhiza glabra, the plant which produces the liquorice of the shops, 

 is cultivated in England for the use of brewers and distillers, but liquorice 

 is manufactured from it only in Sicily and Spain. It grows naturally in 

 these countries and in Languedoc, and in such abundance in some parts of 

 Sicily, that it is considered the greatest scourge to the cultivator. Its 

 roots penetrate to a great depth, and the deeper the ground is opened with 

 a view to eradicate them, so much the more vigorous is the succeeding 

 crop, as is pretty nearly the case in digging up a crop of horse-radish in 

 this country. No other culture is given than removing the crop, thus spon- 

 taneously produced every third year. The juice is expressed from the 

 roots, much in the same way as oil is from olives : they are first washed 

 perfectly clean ; then crushed in an olive mill ; then boiled four or five 

 hours ; pressed in the olive press, and the juice slowly boiled in an iron 

 vessel. (Bull. Univ. Aout, 1826.) 



SPAIN. 



Ceratonia siliqua, or St. John's bread. This tree is of great importance on 

 account of its fruit, which grows in pods, and is about the size of a Mazagan 

 bean. In Valencia one tree will sometimes yield a crop worth from 80 to 

 100 francs; it is generally used for feeding horses, but also as human food 

 in times of scarcity ; it is also used to adulterate coffee and cocoa The 

 plants are grafted when a year old, and as the male and female blossoms are 

 on different plants, a scion of the male is generally grafted on the female 

 when the tree is to stand alone ; but in a plantation one male tree is found 

 sufficient for thirty females. (Bull. Univ.) 



Agriculture. The late M. Correa de Serra wrote in the Archives Lit- 

 teraires, torn. ii. p. 226. an essay on the agriculture of the Arabs in Spain. 

 In this work, which was much esteemed at the time, Mr. Correa thinks that 

 agriculture has never been so flourishing in Spain as it was when the 

 country was inhabited by Arabs. In order to examine the cause of the 

 superiority, he has analysed the Complete Treatise on Agriculture of 

 Eben-el-Awarn, and of a fragment of a manuscript on the culture of the 

 Arabs by Kutsami, a Chaldean author. The result is, first, that in the time 



