Botanic Garden qfPuzol. 397 



sciences, and of a rector, invariably a theologian and a clergy- 

 man. The splendid library of this university, the gift of the 

 immortal Don Francisco Bayer, which abounded in books of 

 natural history, became a prey to the flames, during the siege 

 that Valencia suffered in the latter part of 1811, as did also 

 the archiepiscopal library, which was, perhaps, the second in 

 the nation. 



Botanic GardenofPuzol. — The enlightened piety of His Grace 

 Don Francisco Fabian and Fuero, archbishop of Valencia, 

 was in the last century successfully exerted in the establish- 

 ment of a botanical garden in the town of Puzol, three leagues 

 distant from the city, which is the most beautiful I ever visited. 

 About half of it was appropriated to the cultivation of trees of 

 the families of i7esperideae, and Annonaceae, and other exotics, 

 and the other half for shrubs, small trees, bushes, and herbs, 

 also exotic, and mostly American. Its circular or oval beds, 

 were distributed, if I recollect rightly, in such a manner as to 

 imitate the compartments of a genealogical tree, the trunk and 

 branches of which formed the walks. The latter, paved with 

 blue glazed tiles of Valencia, covered the trenches that con- 

 veyed the water for irrigation. There I saw, cultivated in the 

 open air, for the first time, the ^Salvia tubifera, involucrata, 

 polystachya, leonuroides, tiliacifolia, leucantha, mexicana, two 

 species of Tournefortm, Parkinson/a aculeata, the Ruizza fra- 

 grans of Pavon, the Erythryna corallodendron, Berberis pin- 

 nata, the Bignonm stans, the Z,aurus persea, the Annona cheri- 

 molia, the Psidium j^yriferum and ^>omiferum, different spe- 

 cies of Mimosa, among which there are two forming high and 

 tufted trees, which, when I examined them in the herbarium, 

 three years ago, I judged to be new. There also I saw the 

 Cerbera Thevetia and ovata, Bauhinz'a latifolia, Aralia humilis, 

 Sapindus saponaria, Camelh'a japonica, Antholyza sethiopica, 

 Arum colocasia, Amaryllis reginae, Atamasco, and another 

 species. The Carica Papaya yielded excellent fruit by guard- 

 ing it only with a palm mat in the coolest days of winter, 

 Different American species of Ipomce'a and Convolvulus, the 

 Tropaeolum majus, minus, and peregrinum, the Maurandz'a sem- 

 perflorens, the Dolichos lignosus, and Phaseolus Caracalla 

 climbed and adorned the trees, the walls, and the palings. I 

 was never tired of admiring this delightful garden, in which, 

 every time I visited it, I found some new attraction ; and I still 

 think that it will be difficult to find another offering such a 

 surprising and fine tout ensemble of rarities in the open air. 



But this garden, which in so small a compass was able to 

 diffuse so much information, and from which issued the An- 



