THE STRAWBERRY-TREE 51 



discovers the secret of the contrivances within its 

 cup, the intellect is as charmed by the interior as 

 are the senses by its exterior. 



Evergreens dread frost, and are thus characteristic 

 of warm climates, or of those insular conditions in 

 higher latitudes where frost is rare, rather than of the 

 interior of continents, where, though the summer may 

 be hotter, the winter is also colder. This determines 

 the geographical distribution of the Arbutus. Kegard- 

 less of the chemical characteristics of the soil, it is 

 common all round the Mediterranean from Syria, 

 AnatoUa, the Archipelagd, Thrace, Greece and Dal- 

 matia, to southern Italy, Algeria, Spain, and the 

 Cevennes. In the Tell, or cultivated coastal region, 

 of Algeria, it flourishes in the brushwood under the 

 shade of the Cork* Oak, and it is particularly abundant 

 in the maquis or thickets of Corsica. It extends along 

 the coast of Portugal and the Landes of Bordeaux as 

 far north as Rochelle ; but it cannot stand the cold 

 winter of Paris. It has naturalised itself on the warm 

 moist slopes above the Bristol Avon at Clifton, grow- 

 ing there freely from self-sown seed ; and it has long 

 existed in the neighbourhood of Killarney. 



In the latter locality, where it grows to a large size, 

 ripens its fruit and increases by self-sown seed, it 

 had acquired a local name prior to the first English 

 record of its occurrence there. That, however, was 

 not until the seventeenth century, while the theory of 

 those who do not believe it to be truly wild, is that it 

 may have been introduced by the followers of St. 

 Finian, the leper of sweet Innisfalleh, at the close of 

 the sixth century, or by the Franciscans who founded 



