96 Observations on the Climate of Italy 



date-tree grow ; but at Bordighiera, which lies between them, 

 in a very warm exposure, it is cultivated rather extensively. 

 We must then put the mean temperature of Bordighiera 

 above 16°, and probably it is above that of Toulon, viz. 16 0, 6. 

 From these circumstances it evidently results that the culti- 

 vation of the date-palm in Italy requires a mean annual heat 

 of from 16° to 17° C, and probably nearer the latter. Now 

 the temperature of the southernmost provinces of Italy is not 

 in all likelihood above 17°*5, the temperature of Palermo; and 

 consequently had the climate been two centesimal degrees 

 lower in the days of Pliny, the date-tree could not have been 

 cultivated in Italy; certainly not, as he tells us, " vulgo*." 



I have argued on the supposition that the words " sunt 

 quidem et in Europa, vulgoque Italia, sed steriles," refer to 

 the date-palm : I think he cannot mean the palmetto, Cha- 

 maerops humilis, as he adds, " Nulla est in Italia sponte 

 genita ;" and it is difficult to suppose that the Chamaerops 

 could have been a cultivated plant : yet even in this, as it 

 seems to me, very improbable supposition, the argument 

 would not be affected, since the limit of the Chamaerops is 

 very nearly that of the date-tree. If we except the tract of 

 coast at Bordighiera, before spoken of, the northern limit of 

 the palmetto in Italy is at Cape Circeii near Terracinaf. 

 (Ten ore, Cenno, p. 68.) 



It is observed by Arago, that Virgil speaks somewhere of 

 the rivers freezing in Calabria. He alludes, I presume, to a 

 passage in the fourth Georgic (1. 125, &c), in which the poet 

 speaks of the success of a gardener in the neighbourhood of 

 Tarentum J. 



c< Et cum tristis hyems etiam nunc frigore saxa 

 Rumperet, et glacie cursus fraenaret aquarum, 

 Ille comam mollis jam tondebat hyacinthi." 



These are evidently merely poetical exaggerations. Horace, 

 writing about the same time, praises Tarentum for the mild- 

 ness of its winters. (Od. ii. 6.) 



" Ver ubi longum tepidasque praebet 

 Jupiter bramas :" 



* I am surprised that the learned and accurate Ritter (Asien. vol. iv. 

 lib. 3. §. 99.) should think that the date-tree was introduced into Spain 

 by monks from Egypt. " Ferunt (palmae) et in maritimis Hispaniae fructum, 

 veriim immitem." Plin. xiii. 6. 



f It may be observed in passing, that the Chamaerops was abundant in 

 Sicily in ancient times as it is now. (Theophrast. Hist. Plant, ii. 6. Plin. 

 Hist. Nat. xiii. 9.) This fact alone proves that the temperature of Sicily 

 was not 2° C. lower than at present. 



% The Calabria of the ancients, it will be recollected, was not the pro- 

 vince now called by that name ; it comprised the peninsula which is cut 

 off by a line from Brundusium to Tarentum. 



