Jfffmp Cflrmpttoita. 
Antibes. —It may be interesting to you to receive * 
some information concerning the Villa Thuret 
and the neighbouring localities. The first thing \J\ 
to mention, and which will certainly not surprise 
you, is that for nearly two months we have ex- " / 
perienced an absolutely tropical temperature. In v 
June the Centigrade thermometer registered a tem¬ 
perature of 32 0 to 35° (89 0 —95 0 F.). Since July 2 v 
it has risen nearly every day to 35 0 , 36°, andvJ 
37 ° ( 95 °—98°), and on one occasion to 39°.5, but 
the [heat has been much more excessive at Cannes, 
Nice, and Mentone, which are situated at the foot of 1 ^ 
the Maritime Alps, which arrest the course of the 
north wind, and there the heat has been hardly bear¬ 
able. This would not be a misfortune for horticulture 
if it were possible to give water in proportion to this 
Saharan temperature, or if the storms would bring us 
rain ; unhappily, since June 8, that is, for forty-seven 
days, not a drop of rain has fallen. You will have 
no difficulty in imagining the melancholy appearance 
of all the small plants and the young insuffi¬ 
ciently-rooted shrubs under this implacable sun. 
Where watering cannot be effected all vegetation is 
arrested, it sleeps as in winter, but only awaits the 
first rains to awaken energetically. Meanwhile, 
many Agaves of different species have flowered, and 
are still in flower. The most notable is an enormous 
specimen of Agave applanata, the candelabra-shaped 
inflorescenc^of which is riV thick as a man’s thigh, 
and nearly 10 metres in height. The flowers are 
innumerable, and of a greenish-yellow colour. Some 
of them will certainly yield seeds. 
c 1 \ 
v 
