168 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



Comferce. Pinus Pmea, marftiraa; ^^bies Picea (Greece); Cupressus 

 sempervirens, lusitanica (* Portugal) ; Junfperus Oxycedrus, macrocarpa 

 (Greece), lycia (Greece), phcjenicea (Greece, Portugal), Sahmo. (Greece, 

 Sicily) J jB'phedra distachya (Greece, Portugal). 



^mpetre<s. Corema album (Portugal). 



^mildce(B. ^milax aspera (Greece, Sicily), nigra (Greece), excelsa (Greece). 



Asphodelece. Asparagus acutifolius, aphyllus (Greece, Sicily), horridus 

 (Greece, Sicily), verticillatus (Greece), albus (Portugal, Sicily), 



Bj^omelikcese. Agave americana (Portugal, the more southern part of). 



VabncB. Phce'nix dactylifera (Sicily, * Portugal); Chamee-rops humilis 

 (Sicily). 



Shortly after this period many foreign trees and shrubs were imported from 

 England into the gardens of Signor del Negro of Genoa, and by him distri- 

 buted among the amateurs of his neighbourhood. Some account of the 

 gardens in which these trees were planted will be found in the Encyc, of 

 Gard. (edit. 1833), made from our personal observations in 1819. 



Having thus enumerated the species found in ail these countries that are 

 not indigenous to Britain, we shall subjoin some remarks on the trees and 

 shrubs of Italy, of Spain and Portugal, and of Turkey and Modern Greece. 



SuBSECT. ]. Of the Trees and Shrubs of Itah/, 



The introduction of foreign trees and shrubs into Italy, in modem times, 

 may date from the discovery of India by the Portuguese in 1494, or, rather, 

 from their first settlement at Goa in 1310; from the intercourse of France 

 and England with North America in the commencement of the seventeenth 

 century ; from the settlement at the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch in 

 1630; and, lastly, from the discovery of Australia. From all these countries, 

 but chiefly from the last, a number of trees and shrubs have been brought to 

 Europe ; which, though they require the protection of a green-house in England, 

 thrive in the open air in the neighbourhood of Naples, in Sicily, and in warm 

 situations about Genoa. Among Indian plants may be mentioned, as growing 

 freely in the open air in the south of Italy, the orange and lemon, the Lagerstroe^- 

 xnia indica, the cotton tree, and the cinnamon tree, which attain the height of 

 small trees; from Syria, the Achcla Julib)-hsin, or silk tree. Among those from 

 North America are, the magnolias, and various shrubs from the southern states, 

 the agave from Mexico, and the palmetto from Louisiana. Among those from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, are all the ligneous Geraniaceae, many of the heaths, 

 the diosmas, the proteas, the melaleucas, and similar species. From Australia 

 there are many trees in Italy, which have already attained a large size ; and 

 there is scarcely a doubt but that nearly all the ligneous flora of that part of 

 the world might bs transplanted to Italy, including Sicily, with the most 

 perfect success. As a proof of this, we may refer to the dimensions of certain 

 Australian trees planted at Caserta, in the neighbourhood of Naples, as given 

 in the Gardener^ s Magazine, vol. xi. p. 130. and p. 481. It appears that 

 Eucalyptus robusta attains at Caserta, in a very few years, the height of 100 ft. ; 

 Callistemon lophanthus, and Acacia heterophylla, upwards of 30 ft. The 

 MagnoLVz grandiflora has attained the height of nearly 60 ft.; the camellia 

 23 ft.; and the melaleuca from 23 ft. to 30 ft. In fcicily, we are informed 

 by Woods, Hogg, and other travellers, the palm and the J^icus ^Sycomorus 

 grow as freely as in Egypt, the sugar cane and the bamboo nearly as well 

 as in the East or West Indies, and the papyrus and the nelumbium suc- 

 ceed in the waters. As the warmest parts of Sicily, therefore, admit of 

 growing the plants of the warmest parts of Africa in the open air, there can, 

 we think, be little hazard in supposing that, between the north of Italy and its 

 southern extremities, the ligneous flora of the whole world might, with a vei'y 

 little assistance from art, be included. 



The first introduction of foreign trees and shrubs into Lombardy, we are 

 informed by Signor Manetti, the director and controller of the viceregal 

 gardens at Monza, took place about the year 1770; they were planted by 



