92 Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 



produces cones at Nantes, and the cones containing the edible 

 nuts are sold in the streets. This pine [fig. 37. p. 230. Vol. V.], 

 which is frequent at Rome and in Tuscany, has a peculiar form, 

 which is distinguished in pictures of Italian landscape, the 

 branches spreading out like an umbrella at the upper part of 

 the stem, and forming a flat top. I do not recollect to have met 

 with this pine in places in the interior of France under the same 

 parallel with Nantes (47° 15'), where the winters are colder 

 than they are near the sea. At Paris, however, there are two 

 that produce fruit on the mount in the Jardin des Plantes. In 

 Britain the Phius Pinea seldom attains the size of a large tree, 

 the temperature not being high enough." 



" Between Nantes and Clisson occur many smallish fields, 

 enclosed by hedges of hawthorn, bramble, and whin, with 

 hedgerow trees of pollard oak. This is the part of La Vendee, 

 called Le Bocage. Some patches of winter flax are now 

 (11th January) green, and 2 in. high. This kind of flax is by 

 some authors stated to be a variety differing from the flax 

 which is sown in spring. Clisson, on the side of the river, 

 nearly opposite to the old grey towers of the casfle, is the 

 villa, with extensive and picturesque grounds, of M. Mott the 

 sculptor. The grounds were laid out by him, and are orna- 

 mented, in proper situations, by Italian buildings, temples, 

 and antique statues. There are some large specimens of 

 Pinus Pinea in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. It is long 

 before the trees begin to produce cones. The cones, contain- 

 ing the nuts, are sold in the streets." 



In Barbary and the Levant, an oil is made from the berries 

 of the Melia Azedarach, which is used in lamps. Rushes are 

 planted along the edge of the Languedoc canal, to prevent the 

 bank from being washed down. The egg plant is much 

 cultivated at Narbonne as an esculent vegetable. 



The kitchen-gardens at Montpelier, and in other parts 

 of the south of Languedoc and Provence, are watered 

 by means of rills {rigoles in French). The highest part of 

 these rills is at the well, and from that they are conducted 

 with a small declivity round all the beds of the garden. 

 When any bed does not require water, the branch of the rill 

 which supplies it is for the time stopped with earth. The 

 water is raised from the well by machinery, moved by a horse 

 of very moderate strength. In some places the machine is a 

 chain pump, consisting of an endless chain, with earthen pots 

 attached to it, the chain hanging upon a drum- wheel. In 

 other places it is a wheel of so large a diameter, that whilst 

 the upper part is higher than the surface of the ground, the 

 lower part is immersed in the water, and wooden buckets are 



