eeds." This phrase should be suppressed by a society for the
cultivation of good taste and the prevention of cruelty to plants. Ivy
was everywhere, growing wild, and heather in bloom.

Miss Graves was brought almost to tears one day by finding her old
friend the wild climbing smilax of Florida on these Mediterranean rocks,
and only recovered her self-possession because Lloyd would call it
"sarsaparilla," and she felt herself called upon to do battle. But the
profusion of the violets, the pomp of the red anemones, the perfume of
the white narcissus, the hyacinths and sweet alyssum, all growing wild,
who shall describe them? There were also tulips, orchids, English
primroses, and daisies. Even when nothing else could grow there was
always the demure rosemary. Of course, too, we made close acquaintance
with the olive and lemon, the characteristic trees of Mentone, whose
foliage forms its verdure, and whose fruit forms its commerce. The
orange groves were insignificant and the oranges sour compared with
those of Florida; but the olive and lemon groves were new to us, and in
themselves beautiful and luxuriant. Our hotel stood on the edge of an
old olive grove climbing the mountain-side slowly on broad terraces
rising endlessly as one looked up. After some weeks' experience we found
that we represented collectively various shades of opinion concerning
olive groves in general, which may be given as follows:

Mrs. Clary: "These old trees are to me so sacred! When I walk under
their great branches I always think of the dove bringing the leaf to the
ark, of the olive boughs of the entry into Jerusalem, and of the Mount
of Olives."

[Illustration: BRINGING LEMONS FROM THE TERRACE]

The Professor: "Olives are interesting because their manner of growth
allows them to attain an almost indefinite age. The trunk decays and
splits, but the bark, which still retains its vigor, grows around the
dissevered portions, making, as it were, new trunks of them, although
curved and distorted, so that three or four trees seem to be growing
from the same root. It is this which gives the tree its characteristic
knotted and gnarled appearance. This species of olive attains a very
fine development in the neighborhood of Mentone; there are said to be
trees still alive at Cap Martin which were coeval with the Roman
Empire."

Verney: "The light in an old olive grove is beautiful and peculiar; it
is like nothing but itself. It is quite impossible to