Science from an Easy ChairLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history; Science
The so-called “mimosa,” so abundant here, with its pretty,
sweet-scented, yellow blossom, is an Australian acacia, only introduced
some sixty years ago; whilst the eucalyptus—a most picturesque and
effective addition to the landscape—is a still later introduction from
Australia. The cypress, that darkest and most shapely of conifers, long
lines of which proclaim to the traveller as he passes Avignon his
arrival in the true “South,” is not a native of these parts, although it
flourishes in suitable situations. It was introduced in mediæval times
from the East. So, too, the palms, though some have been cultivated for
centuries, have been largely imported from extra European localities in
the last century. There is a native European palm. It is a kind of
fan-palm, and grows here. I have gathered it in Sicily. It does not
“rear its stately head” more than a foot from the ground, and is known
to botanists as _Chamærops humilis_. The gigantic Mexican agave and the
prickly-pear cactus were introduced in the seventeenth century from the
New World, though, according to Sir Herbert Tree’s scenery, they were
growing at Cape Miseno in the time of Antony and Cleopatra! Bamboos of
many kinds have been introduced here from the Far East, and flourish
exceedingly.
The orange tree was brought from India (whither it was carried from
China) and established in Southern Europe in mediæval times, though
known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. There are as many as 120
different varieties of the orange tree now cultivated on the shores of
the Mediterranean, including, besides those which are valued for their
sweet juicy pulp, those which furnish bergamot oil and similar aromatic
products. The “issue pea” of old apothecaries, which was bound into a
cut made in a patient’s flesh for the purpose of producing inflammation
and suppuration, with the notion that such treatment was beneficial, was
a minute unripe orange dried, and, no doubt, to some extent, antiseptic.
Besides the introduced trees, we find, in ground which has been more or
less under cultivation, and not, therefore, of the nature of the
“maquis,” or scrub-land, some beautiful plants, such as the narcissus,
iris, and various lilies. One very small and graceful tulip is, I
believe, regarded as native to the soil, but a magnificent crimson
tulip, as large as the varieties cultivated in English gardens, which I
have found abundantly in open park-like land under olive trees at
Antibes, is said to have been introduced from Persia in the Middle Ages,
and to have taken kindly to the Riviera. It is the _Tulipa oculus
solis_. In the same locality were growing many brilliantly coloured
“stellate” anemones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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