"None of the plants we mention here have been considered, until
now, worth being scientifically cultivated, although our Society
has claimed for it many times, because, neither private persons nor
private congregations, without the help of the government, can
afford the establishment and maintenance of experimental farms, which
are the true guides for studies and observations.
"We have preferred here cultivating foreign trees, whilst we had here
a great many much better than they, as for their wood, shade and
elegance.
"The private efforts of men we cannot forget have changed the aspect
of our forests and also of the cattle of the country, by enriching
it with new seeds and new plants and employing the combined means of
nature and of work."
In many departments the palm tree is found, also many kinds of
fruit and ornamental trees. There are trees, shrubs and herbs with
medicinal properties and good for dyeing and weaving, and also
resinous, aromatic and alkaline ones.
The series of the plants with healing properties is long; there
may be found the sarsaparilla, the marshmallow, the liquorice, the
rhubarb, the camomile, the wild celery and many other plants, which
it would be too long to enumerate here.
Among the fruit trees accustomed to this climate there are: the
orange tree, the apple tree, the pear tree, the apricot tree, the
pomegranate tree, the peach tree, the cherry tree, the lemon tree,
the plum tree, the nut tree, the quince tree, the olive tree, the
medlar tree, the almond tree, the chestnut tree, the fig tree, the
date palm, etc., etc.
Among the other classes we find the poplar, the cypress, the elm,
the oak, the plantain, the acacia, the eucalyptus, the cedar, the
magnolia, the white mulberry tree, etc.
As for the cereals and vegetables, all kinds of them grow here
perfectly and abundantly. Wheat, maize, barley, lucerne, are the
principal rural products. The chick-pea, the French bean, the
gray pea, the bean, the sugar-pea, the hastings, the lentils, the
potatoes, the Spanish potatoes, the carrot, the radishes, the
turnips, the pumpkins, the beet root, etc., and all kinds of pot
herbs, the watermelons, the melon and the strawberry grow also
abundantly.
The grape vine, the flax, the tobacco, the canary seed, the cotton,
the anise-seed, the hemp, the currin seed, the peanuts and many other
classes give good results. During these last years the nursing of the
vine, the olive, the lucerne, and the tobacco has spread itself a
great deal.
As for the flowers, there is such an immense variety of them and such
a plenty that the Republic has deserved the name of "The country of
sun and flowers." The industry of nosegays and crowns has reached an
unheard-of development. Beside the garden plants that belong to the
country, they nurse here all the varieties known in Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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