In addition to the above account by Mr. Mathews, we may notice that the melon and sandia, or musk and water-melon, are much cultivated in the neighbourhood of Lima; and are to be seen in large heaps by the bridge, and at the corners of streets, where they are bought up, and consumed with avidity, in the hot month of February. Olives too, and very good ones, grow in the Vale of Rimac, and arrive at maturity in February and March. During the late civil wars, several valuable olive plantations were wantonly cut down. Strawberries, and likewise “tunas,” or Indian figs, of inferior quality, grow in Lima; but the market is supplied with these fruits, and of the best quality, from the neighbouring valley of Sta. Ulaya. The pine-apple does not ripen spontaneously in Lima, though attempts are now making near the Callao gate of the city to cultivate it. The pine-apple eaten in Lima is usually brought from the eastern side of Peru, from the Montaña of Tarma and Guancayo, &c. Sometimes, also, a few pine-apples are carried from about Moro on the coast to the northward; but these often decay before they arrive in Lima. CHAPTER IV. Remarks explanatory of certain Dietetic maxims, and established notions or prejudices, illustrative of the physical constitution and domestic habits of the Limenians. In Lima there are certain opinions and rules, relating to the nature and cure of diseases, so very popular and well received among the vulgar, and at the same time so habitually countenanced by many of the native practitioners, that, for any one who proposes to practise in that part of the world, and hopes to be honourably acquitted by the jury of nurses and attendants who are always numerous about the sick, it may be worth while to consider the tenor of the following remarks: I. _No conoce nuestro clima._—It is affirmed by native doctors, but not always acceded to by the vulgar, that there is something occult in the climate of Lima, which only a Limenian or Creole physician can sufficiently comprehend. Hence the prejudiced objection, “No conoce nuestro clima,”—that is, “he knows not our climate,”—is sanctioned by high professional authority; and this much hackneyed caveat is usually laid at the threshold of every European doctor who desires to make himself professionally useful in Lima. Every one, we think, will admit that the practice of medicine must be modified, or considerably altered, according to the topography of any particular country; for it is observed, that difference of locality affects not only man, but plants and animals, in a striking degree as we extend from the Equator towards latitudes far to the north or south of it. Yet, if there be any who understand either the botany or zoology of Peru, or who endeavour to illustrate these subjects by their science and diligence, they are not Peruvians.