TREES, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS
Dates and bananas--Magnolias and camellias--Canes for
trellis-work--The chestnut--Killing the goose that lays the golden
egg--Walnut wood--The finest mouthful in the world--Shipment of
pine trees to foreign ports--Ignorance of the peasants--The
eucalyptus, the birch, the willow, and the
ash--Gorse--Tobacco--Flax--The linen industry--How linen is
bleached--The potato--Maize barns--Two crops in the year--The
cultivation of the vine--How the peasants make their wine--Coffins
for sale--Drunken husbandmen--English soldiers and Gallegan
wine--Cabbages--_Caldo Gallego_--Spanish onions--“As large as a
plate”--Every kind of fruit known to Europe--Attar of orange
flowers--Fig trees--Apples--Pears--Wood
strawberries--Cherries--Plums--Medlars--Pomegranates--Quantities of
fruit for sale--A novel way of catching trout--Reeds--Red
peppers--Flowers in winter--The hoop-petticoat narcissus--Wild
flowers that we have not got in England
The climate and soil of Galicia are so varied that not only can every
plant known to Europe be made to flourish there, but many tropical ones
as well. In the low and sheltered valleys both dates and bananas have
been known to ripen in the open air; the magnolia and the camellia grow
there in profusion. The magnolia was first imported to Europe from
Carolina, New Jersey, in 1688, by Pedro Magnol, from whom it derives its
name; the wood of one variety of this tree is used in Galicia for many
purposes; it has a beautiful grain and is almost an orange colour; the
_magnolia grandiflora_ often reaches the height of a hundred feet and
more; it bears a handsome white blossom. There is also a small Japanese
magnolia which is trained against the wall. The camellia exhibits here
some six hundred varieties, and is, during the winter months, the chief
ornament of the public walks and gardens: this shrub was introduced to
Europe by a Spanish Jesuit, Pedro Camelli, in 1738. The mimosa, covered
with yellow blossom, takes the place of our laburnum, and might be taken
for it at a little distance. Another favourite tree is the azalia, which
is constantly found in the public squares and gardens. Wisteria does as
well here as in Japan. I noticed it especially luxuriant in Pontevedra.
The cane, or bamboo, _arundo donax_, is much cultivated in Gallegan
fields and gardens, especially in the province of Pontevedra, where
canes are used to form trellis-work to support the vines, as well as for
fishing-rods; they flower in August, and often grow to the height of ten
feet.
The chestnut, the oak, and the walnut are three of the commonest trees
in Galicia. The chestnut, the king of the Gallegan forests, grows to
perfection, and its nut formed, until quite recently, one of the
principal means of sustenance among the poor; but of late years the
ignorant peasants have taken to cutting down their chestnut trees for
firewood, and are thus killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. In
many districts the chestnut woods are disappearing with ominous
rapidity, and, added to this, there has been for the last twenty years a
disease among them which is killing them off in thousands,--they dry up
and die, hundreds together,--and it is feared that, with the
disappearance of its woods, the land will also suffer from a change of
climate. Walnut wood is considered to be the best for the manufacture of
furniture, and as this tree is so plentiful, it is even used for
flooring in the houses of the wealthy. The wood of the cherry tree is
also much used in making furniture. The fruit or nut of the walnut is of
two kinds, one very large, the other rather small. I was told that a bit
of maize bread, a skinned walnut, and a lump of cheese were “the finest
mouthful in the world!” The poor have a process by which they smoke and
dry the chestnuts that are to be preserved for winter use; these are
eaten just as you would eat a hard biscuit. I tried one, but found it
too hard for my teeth. The pigs in many parts are fed largely upon
chestnuts; hence the remarkably fine flavour of their bacon.
Pine trees cover the higher mountain slopes; the shipping of pine stems
to other countries forms one of the principal industries of several of
the coast towns, such as Noya, which ships pine wood to Cardiff in great
quantities, and also to the Asturias, whence coal is brought back in the
returning vessels. The sad part of it is that when the pine trees are
cut down few think of planting fresh ones, although those who planted
would be well repaid for their pains, as the pines of Galicia grow with
remarkable rapidity. A priest told me that one of his parishioners had
realised a comfortable little fortune in the space of twenty years by
planting pines in a few acres of hilly land and selling the trees to
shipbuilders when grown; but he added that such enterprise was rare, and
that the people were too ignorant to take in the idea that any good
could come of planting trees, though they were willing enough to cut
down those that were there already.
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE MAIZE BARN IN VILLAGE NEAR OSERA]
[Illustration: MOUNTAIN SLOPE CULTIVATED IN STEPS OR TERRACES, ORENSE]
A few years ago the attention of the Spanish Government was drawn to the
growing scarcity of wood, and several towns were ordered to make
plantations, but want of proper instruction led to failure. There is
plenty of room for forests in those parts where other vegetation does
not thrive. The fact that pines are necessary for navigation, and that
ships cannot be built without them, has led to the pine forests being
partially protected by Government from the firewood-collecting peasants.
It is high time that something should be done to protect so valuable a
tree as the chestnut, whose fruit has more than once taken the place of
bread in times of famine.
The eucalyptus, originally imported from Australia, grows to a great
height in Galicia, and its bark, as I have already mentioned, may be
seen lying across the roads in spring-time like wide bars of iron. The
black poplar lines the streets of Monforte, but it is not so common in
Galicia as in Castille. Box is plentiful, and grows to a greater height
than with us. There are three kinds of laurel in most of the public
gardens, and the dwarf palm is also much used as a decorative tree.
The birch, _betula alba_, only grows in the higher zones. I found this
tree on the high moorlands near the Portuguese frontier. The willow, the
ash, and the Portuguese laurel grow in abundance in the valleys along
the river banks, and in most places where the ground is moist. The lime
is another tree that grows abundantly, and to a great height, in
Galicia. In March and the early part of April the uncultivated parts of
the country are gloriously yellow with gorse, _ulex Europæus_, which
sends out long shoots and branches covered with brilliant blossom, and
is altogether finer than I had ever seen it in England. When its
flowering bloom is over, the peasants cut down the gorse and pound it,
with some grass, into a kind of paste for their cattle; it is said to
improve the flavour of their beef. They call this shrub _tojo_.
Tobacco also does remarkably well here, and grows to a great height, but
it is not cultivated. It was in the forties of the nineteenth century
that Ford wrote: “In order to benefit the Havanah, tobacco is not
allowed to be grown in Spain, which it would do in perfection in the
neighbourhood of Malaga; for the experiment was made, and, having turned
out quite successful, the cultivation was immediately prohibited.”
Flax was very extensively grown at one time, and it is still much
cultivated in Lugo and Orense; it grows also in the valley of the Ulla,
round Padron. Ever since the days of Pliny, Spain has had a reputation
as a flax-growing country, and Galicia has always been one of the
provinces which produced the largest quantity, her damp and rainy
climate being the most favourable to its growth. The ancients called the
linen made from Spanish flax _carbasus_, and esteemed it more highly
than that of Italy. The fact that the sails of ships were called
_carbasus_ has led to the conjecture that the sails of Roman ships were
manufactured from Spanish cloth. Catullus mentions the beautiful Spanish
handkerchiefs used by the Roman ladies, _sudaria saetaba_, but these
received their name from a town in Valencia, _Saetabis_, where flax was
also grown. The linen industry flourished in Galicia during the Middle
Ages, but it was already in its decline in the seventh century. In 1656,
Francisco Martinez de la Meta tried to rouse the Government to the
danger of allowing Russia and other countries to import their
manufactured goods into Spain, and thus become the ruin of the linen
industry.[303] Towards the close of the eighteenth century the
falling-off of this industry in Galicia was attributable partly to the
fact that a great deal of bad flax was sown. In the early part of the
seventeenth century, an Asturian author, Francisco Consul, wrote a
treatise on the bleaching of Gallegan linen, which he considered to be
the finest in Europe. In 1804, Labrada wrote that the manufacture of
linen was the chief industry of Coruña, and that certain Englishmen had
started factories there and imported the latest kind of carding
machinery.[304] At present the peasant women carry their distaffs about
with them, and spin in the fields as they mind their cows. When they
wish to bleach their linen, they boil it and spread it in the sun, then
boil it again and spread it once more in the sun; if by this time it is
not sufficiently bleached, they repeat the process.
The potato is extensively cultivated; it forms, with maize, kidney
beans, and cabbage, the chief food of the Gallegan poor. When it was
first introduced, the peasants refused to plant it, but they gradually
came to see its usefulness, and in 1778, when there was a famine in the
land, they learned that the very rain which may spoil a harvest only
fattens the potato. The value of the plant was at last brought home to
them, and from that time to this it has been assiduously cultivated.
A special feature of every landscape in Galicia is its innumerable
maize barns with their thatched or tiled roofs and church-like spires.
There is one in the back garden of every peasant’s cottage. Maize is the
most popular cereal in the province. When Borrow entered Galicia on
horseback, he was surprised to find that, instead of barley, maize was
given to his horses for provender, and he was equally surprised to find
that the animals ate it without hesitation. Wheat, rye, barley, and
millet are also cultivated, but not to the same extent as maize. The
peasants sow wheat or rye and barley for their first crop, and as soon
as this has been harvested they sow maize in its place, and thus get two
harvests in the year. Opinions differ as to the ultimate advantage of
this practice.
Galicia is essentially a vine country; from time immemorial her vines
have been appreciated, but rather for their abundance than their
quality, as too little care has been bestowed upon their cultivation. Of
late years disease has crept into the vineyards, and heavy loss has been
experienced in consequence. A new kind of vine is now being introduced
from America as likely to withstand disease better than the old kinds.
The American vines can easily be distinguished from the older kinds, for
they grow on sticks like hops, while the gnarled branches of the latter
are trained over trellis-work made of the local bamboo. Every peasant
house has its vine-covered verandah, and the beauty of many a Gallegan
landscape is greatly due to the vine-clad terraces that cover the
hillsides. In the early spring, when the branches are still bare, they
look, in the distance, like fishermen’s nets spread out to dry in the
sun.
Most of the peasants grow grapes for themselves and make sufficient wine
to supply their own households. A peasant who lived in a little cottage
near Orense showed me in an outhouse a large vat in which he made his
wine. The vat, which was of oak, lay on its side; it was strongly bound
with wood and iron, and had a square hole on the upper side into which
the grapes were put. My informant explained to me that as soon as the
grapes were in the vat he would wash himself thoroughly, and then,
wearing no garment but a shirt, which he drew up round his waist, he
would get into the vat and proceed to stamp upon the grapes till they
were reduced to a soft pulp. This process he would repeat three days
following,[305] kneading the grapes for about twenty minutes on each
occasion. “I then close the vat and leave it for a month,” he continued,
“after which I can draw the wine from the tap, and it flows clear and is
quite ready for the table.”
“But what are those long black boxes above the vat?” I asked.
“Those are coffins,” was the reply. “I keep a store of them, and sell
them to my neighbours when wanted at six pesetas” (five shillings)
“apiece. It is convenient to have them ready, as our village is so far
from any town.”
Although wine is so plentiful and cheap, the very poor content
themselves with water, and seldom touch any other beverage. Red wine is
supplied free at all the Gallegan hotels, and a very pleasant drink it
is; there is hardly more alcohol in it than would be found in an
ordinary fruit syrup, and the wines of Pontevedra are said to be even
less alcoholic than those of Orense. I have already mentioned how the
town of Ribadavia lies in the very centre of the vine country. The
people of that part are said to indulge rather freely in the wine that
their soil produces for them in such abundance. When a man has made
himself drunk after his midday meal, the neighbours say, “He has climbed
up into his vine” (_estar subido a la para_); and the story goes that an
English wine-merchant once came to Ribadavia to negotiate with some of
the husbandmen for the purchase of their wine, but that at every house
where he inquired for the master he was told that the owner of the
vineyard had “climbed into his vine,” and could not be seen. Tradition
has it that the Englishman grew very indignant, and made a remark in his
notebook to the effect that these particular wine-growers should be
avoided in future; he did not realise that the men he had wished to do
business with were one and all too drunk at that hour to drive a
bargain, and that his wisest course would have been to call again later
in the day. In this connection we may add that during the English attack
on Vigo in 1719, one of the officers wrote in his journal: “Most of the
soldiers abused themselves so much with wine that a small body of men
might have given us a great deal of uneasiness” (Macaulay).
A species of cabbage, known as the Gallegan cabbage, grows very
plentifully all over Galicia; local writers speak of it as “the bread of
the poor”; it is said to be the most economical and the most digestible
kind of cabbage that exists. The life of this plant is usually four
years, and it grows with a long stalk, the heart of the cabbage often
reaching a height of a foot and a half above the ground. It is of this
cabbage that the famous Gallegan broth--_caldo Gallego_--is chiefly
made; the richer classes add the water in which half a pig’s head has
been boiled, but the poor often put in nothing but cabbage, potatoes,
and a few haricot beans. In spring, when the cabbage water has a strong
smell, the vegetables are boiled separately, after which the cabbage is
taken out of its water and placed in the pot with the potatoes.
One of the principal exports from Orense to our shores is the “Spanish
onion.” This vegetable, in the words of a local housekeeper, “is often
as large as a plate.” It grows plentifully in the valley of the Ulla,
all round Padron, and in most of the low-lying valleys of Galicia.
Every kind of fruit known to Europe can be cultivated in Galicia. I have
already stated that in all the lower valleys every peasant’s garden has
its lemon tree, also oranges ripen well in the neighbourhood of
Pontevedra and Noya, but they are never very large. During the
fourteenth century an aromatic oil, or _attar_, was manufactured at Noya
from orange flowers grown in the neighbourhood. The Spaniards called
this oil _atatiar_, and it is probable that they learned the art of
making it from their Moorish conquerors.
Fig trees are to be found wherever there are oranges. I saw particularly
fine ones in some of the gardens; their growth was very sturdy, and not
unlike that of the oak. In the vicinity of Tuy there are a good many
olives scattered amongst the other trees, but there are no plantations
of them. The needle-pointed cypress is also to be seen, but, as I have
said, this tree is rarely found outside the gardens of the aristocracy.
Apples are produced in great variety: there is a small sweet
russet--_manzana parda_; a large green apple with little black
spots--_tartiadillo_; a pretty greenish-yellow apple that has its name
from the town of _Sarria_ near Lugo; a green apple as large as a
football--_tres en ramid_ (three on a branch); and another large green
apple, wide at the base and rather tapering, very sweet--_fada_.
The finest pear for eating is considered to be the _Urraca_, which is
small and dark green in colour. The fact that this variety has been
named after Queen Urraca leads to the supposition that it originated in
Galicia. Another pear, _pera de manteca_ (butter pear), is of two kinds:
_de oro_ (golden) and _de plata_ (silver); both these varieties are very
large. Then there is the _pera de Judas_, a large green pear, excellent
for eating.
The earliest fruit is the wood strawberry, which is ripe about the
middle of May. Cherries are plentiful in June, especially a large black
one, very sweet--_guinda_. Later there are several kinds of greengages
and plums: the _claudia_ is greatly prized for preserving in syrup.
Apricots and peaches also abound; one kind of peach, the _pavia del
revero_, was selling in the local markets at fifteen dollars per hundred
in 1906. Melons also do well here, especially the water melon, which is
very plentiful. Medlars of two kinds are seen in the markets in great
quantities, where they are sold at the equivalent of threepence a pound.
The earliest grapes are a very small white kind, which ripen about the
end of September, and sell at about sixpence a pound. Pomegranates grow
in the warmer valleys; so far as I could make out, there are no almonds,
though it is probable that these too, like the date and the banana,
would thrive here if once introduced.
During the summer months the squares and public places are crowded with
fruit-sellers, and the quantities of fruit they bring in from the
country round are a sight to see.
Among the plants that interested me there was one called Torvisco
(probably from the Latin _Turviscus_), which is known to us as the
flax-leaved daphne. Its leaves are used by the peasants for catching
trout. The fish nibble the leaves when they are placed in the stream,
and are poisoned at once; whereupon they are taken out of the water and
cooked for the table. It seems that this kind of poison does not in any
way affect the wholesomeness of the fish for eating purposes.
Reeds grow in quantities near Padron, and the gathering and selling of
them forms the principal occupation of whole villages. A kind of rough
waterproof worn by the labourers in rainy weather is manufactured from
reeds; and rush hats are also worn. The villagers of Laino have a
refrain which they sing when they go rush-gathering:--
“Ellas eran de Laino,
Ellas de Laino son.
Collen hoshuncos no prado
Vamos vender a Padron.”
Which is in English:--
“These are from Laino,
From Laino do they come.
We gather them in the meadows,
And sell them at Padron.”
A well-made reed hat is considered rather a luxury; it costs upwards of
a pound, and is only worn by the well-to-do peasants.
The _pimiento dulce_ (capsicum), or sweet red pepper, grows to
perfection in all the valleys. There are three crops in the year: small
green pimientos are gathered in May, large green ones in July, and large
red ones in August. The pimiento is a favourite ingredient in Spanish
cooking, and it is also served as a salad to cold meat.
There are flowers out of doors all the year round. Not only is the
camellia brilliant with white and red blooms in December and January,
but high hedges of wild geraniums are also in bloom, and sweet-scented
violets abound in the woods in January. In March and April the
hoop-petticoat narcissus carpets meadows as profusely as the wild
hyacinth does with us. I have seen it both a delicate creamy white and a
brilliant yellow. Many of the wild flowers are much the same as those of
our own Devonshire hedges and meadows, but I noticed a number that I had
never seen in England; and there is no doubt that were an English
botanist to devote the months of March, April, and May to the wild
flowers of Galicia, he would be amply rewarded for his trouble, and feel
the additional satisfaction that is always derived from the
consciousness of being the first in the field.