THE 
HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 
April 1st, 1835. 
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HORTICULTURE. 
ARTICLE I.—REMARKS ON VINES, &c. IN GIBRALTAR. 
BY HIJO DE ESPANA. 
In referring to the list of the best Vines in cultivation in this coun¬ 
try, particularized at page 828, Vol. I, of the Horticultural Regis¬ 
ter , there is one called the “ Gibraltar-Produce, dark red, thin skin¬ 
ned—a very good grape.” I have no recollection of having met with 
this kind at Gibraltar, but I have seen Vines there bearing very fine 
large grapes, which were black, thick skinned, and decidedly supe¬ 
rior to the Hamburgh in every respect: these grapes being different 
to any I ever met with at Algeziras, St. Roque, or any other place 
in the immediate neighbourhood of Gibraltar, has led me to imagine 
that this particular kind must have been originally imported from 
Barbary, during the occupation of that Fortress by the moors. 
The Algaroba or Locust-Tree attains the size of any tree of the 
forest, and strongly resembles the Acacia-Tree of this country. It 
produces pods like immense kidney-beans, which, when ripe, are of 
a chocolate colour—these I have partook of in the South of Spain, 
\vjiere the tree is met with, and found them by no means unpleasant 
to the taste. 
This tree is also found in South America, Barbary, and the Holy- 
I land, and it must have been the fruit of the Algaroba, with the wild 
honey, which St. John subsisted on in the wilderness, the more es¬ 
pecially as this particular fruit is still used as food by the poor of 
Palestine. In Spain and Barbary, it is generally made use of in 
feeding cattle. 
I think the Algaroba might be cultivated with safety in the south 
of England. 
VOL. iv. no. 46. 
i. 
