DRIED FRUITS. 



95 



any great magnitude. When the crop of olives is very 

 small, they are generally attacked by insects. The 

 annual average quantity of oil produced from each tree 

 is only about two quarts. The best oil for eating is 

 extracted cold, what is extracted by warm water is used 

 for burning, and for soap, and other manufactures. The 

 oil of Marseilles is certainly more pure and beautiful 

 than I have elsewhere seen it. The finest oil of France 

 is produced at Aix, eight leagues north of Marseilles. 



I walked with M. Negrel to the Botanic Garden, for 

 the Director of which I had also a letter. The garden is 

 neither extensive, nor particularly well furnished. The 

 Conservatory is handsome, but is too large to be easily 

 heated. The collection of plants is insignificant com- 

 pared with that of Montpelier. I saw a swamp oak, a 

 pretty large tree, and a splendid specimen of the caout- 

 chouc in the conservatory. A specimen of the latter in 

 the open air had been killed by the frosts of the pre- 

 ceding week, notwithstanding its having been wrapped 

 up with straw mats. 



Monday, 5th December. — Having engaged a cabriolet 

 and a guide from my maitre d'hotel, I proceeded at an 

 early hour to Roquevaire; the distance is about 12 or 

 14 miles in an easterly direction. The road almost 

 every where proceeded among steep acclivities, through 

 a country which the industry of man has won from its 

 original barrenness, and which is on all sides cultivated 

 like a garden, with every variety of produce. The hills, 

 or rather mountains, which bounded the horizon to the 

 right, formed a very rugged and picturesque back 

 ground to this picture of industry. There is scarce a 

 spot which by any degree of labour could be gained from 

 the rocks, that is not under cultivation ; and the same 



