A GARDEN IN VENICE 



tions, and eat delicious pears from July to May. 

 The figs were prized for their size ; now we 

 have three or four kinds notable for their excel- 

 lence in taste. Of grapes I write later ; suffice 

 it now to say that if not so large as those growing 

 in English hothouses, ours will yield to none in 

 flavour. The strawberries were of the woodland 

 without the woods that gave them their food and 

 shelter ; now we have them of good size and 

 quality, though curiously the several varieties we 

 have imported have merged their differences and 

 agreed to make one first-rate family. Just as 

 English and other races have founded across the 

 ocean that excellent human type, the American. 

 Raspberries will not bear our whiff of the sea, 

 but gooseberries give us tarts when tiny, and are 

 less crude than the fruit grown at home. When 

 ripe in July they are neglected, for there is so 

 much fruit that is better. Currants, white, red, 

 and black, are great bearers. Of apples on the 

 Giudecca we only know the flower, though on 

 the island of Sant Erasmo near by, some trees 

 own do fairly well. Peaches are excellent. Years 

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