nd patience expended. There is further occupation in
superintending vintage and harvest, while the orange-groves and
luxuriant gardens offer plenty of resources for exercise or idleness.
Plant-life in Portugal is singularly varied even for so warm a country.
To the native orange, olive and other trees of Southern Europe have been
added many exotics. The large magnolia of our Southern States, the
Japanese camellia and the Australian gum tree have made themselves at
home there, and grow as if their roots were in their native soil.
Geraniums and heliotrope, which we confine easily in flower-pots, assume
a different aspect in the public gardens of Lisbon, where the former is
seen in flaming trees and hedges twenty or thirty feet high, and the
latter distributes its fragrance while covering the high walls with its
spreading arms.

The grapes from which port-wine is made are all grown within the narrow
compass of a mountain-valley about twenty-seven miles long by five or
six wide, where the conditions of soil and climate most favorable to
wine-culture--including a large degree of both heat and cold--are found
in perfection. Owing to its elevation the frosts in this district are
tolerably severe, while in summer the sun looks steadily down with his
hot glance into the valley till its vine-clad sides are permeated by
heat. The grapes ripened there are of peculiar richness and strength.
The trade is all in the hands of a certain number of English merchants
at Oporto, who buy the grapes as they hang of the native farmers and
have the wine made under their own supervision. The wine-making is
conducted in much the same manner as in other countries, a certain
quantity of spirits being added to arrest decay and ensure its
preservation. All wine has passed through the first stage of decay,
fermentation, and is liable at any time to continue the course. It may
be made with little or no alcohol if it is to be drunk within the year:
to ensure a longer lease of life some antiseptic is necessary. Port is,
from its richness, peculiarly liable to decay, and will stand
fortification better than sherry, which being a light wine is less in
need of it and more apt to be over-fortified. The area in which port is
produced being so small, there can be no material difference in the
produce of different vineyards, but some slight superiorities of soil or
aspect have given the Vesuvio, the Raida and a few other wines a special
reputation.

The histo