792 
less than three years after planting. The frost and cold 
weather so prevalent In winter in such parts of the world 
as California, Florida, and the Mediterranean basin make 
us realise how superior our climate is to all the above 
mentioned, for here such a thing as a frost below 2000 
feet above sea level is an unheard of thing, and yet in 
summer the maximum temperatures are much below that re- 
corded in all the climates alluded to. No wonder these 
were called by the ancients the Fortunate Islands. I beg 
to inclose three small packets of Echium seeds, El pinin- 
ana, E. wildpretii, and E. perezii Sprague. The last is a 
new species which I had sent you about two years ago under 
the mistaken name of E. pininana, it is very like E. wild- 
pretii. You ought to endeavor to raise plants of E. pinin- 
ana which is a very rare plant indeed. All these plants 
are very remarkable, being most ornamental and attractive 
to bees and some of them as I have told you before are 
good forage. Since I speak of bees allow me to call your 
attention to our mountain broom, Cytisus supranubius , also 
called Cytisus fragrans, which is, as far as I know, the 
plant that gives the best honey in the world. Its habitat 
is the high plateau of Tenerife, surrounding the Peak, and 
it grows between 6000 and 10000 feet above the sea level 
in an excessively dry climate, with very cold nights and 
hot days. The winter temperature often falls at night to 
10° Cent, below zero. I venture to suggest that this 
plant can be tried in many parts of California, where 
there are frosts. Oddly enough it has the same habitat as 
Echium wildpretii, which as I have told you before is the 
hardiest of our Echiums." 
