We abridge the following from a few Horticultural Notes on a Journey
from Rome to Naples, in March last, contributed to that excellent work,
the _Gardeners' Magazine_, by W. Spence, Esq. F.L.S.
_Italian Inn._--Mr. Spence says, "Our rooms at the inn at Capua, where
we slept, opened on a terraced garden, with orange trees, vines trained
on arched trellises, marble fountains, &c., which, for ten shillings
expense, might have been made very gay and attractive; but all was
forlornness and disorder, the beds untrimmed, and the walks littered
with dirt. Two magnificent plants of Opuntia vulgaris, which flanked one
of the windows, the waiter said, were planted there '_per pompa_' (for
pomp's sake); a motive, unfortunately, so often the leading one in
Italy, without any regard to the humbler ones of neatness and order."
_Pontine Marshes._--Mr. Spence observes "the desolate aspect attributed
to these twenty-four miles of the road between Rome and Naples is one of
the many exaggerations which prevail with regard to Italy." He describes
the surface as dead-flat, with occasional portions covered with reeds,
or overflowed with water, giving the whole a fenny character, yet, as
happily, there are no pollard willows, and the road runs the whole way
between two rows of tall elm trees, the general effect to the eye is not
offensive, and far less repulsive than some parts of Holland or
Lincolnshire.
_Italian Landscapes._--The absence of fine full-grown trees is the great
defect of landscape scenes in Italy, where you sometimes travel a
hundred miles (as in Lombardy) without setting eyes on a tree that has
not been pollarded or lopped.
_Palming._--In the north of Italy palm-trees are cultivated, to sell
their leaves to the Romish churches for Palm-Sunday.
_Italian Climate._--The true Italian climate is confined to a very small
portion of Italy, namely, to some favoured spots on the western coast.
Here the approximation of the Apennines to the sea, at once keeps off
the north and east winds, and reflecting the sun's rays, affords the
temperature which the orange, lemon, &c. require. The moment you recede
from the coast, especially if a very trifling elevation of ground takes
place, farewell to oranges and lemons at least in any perfection.
_Sweet Lemon._--At Naples a curious variety of lemon is exposed in the
streets for sale, having externally the exact colour and shape of an
orange, except that at the stalk end is a depression, and on this a
prominence, as in the lemon, but within having the pale pulp of the
lemon, and sweet juice.
_Economy._--In the square of the town of Caserta, Mr. Spence saw exposed
for sale bundles of green lupine plants pulled up by the roots, and of
the roots of couch grass, which we burn, but which the Italians more
wisely give as a saccharine and grateful food to horses.
_Campagna Felice_ is the title given to the extensive tract of land
which lies between the mountains to the north-east of Caserta and
Naples, and the Mediterranean. The whole is cultivated like a garden:
rows of lopped elms or poplars intersect the fields, at the distance of
40 or 50 feet between each row, to which vines are trained: and the
intermediate space is occupied by luxuriant wheat; lupines, pulled green
for fodder; garden-beans; or ground prepared for ploughing by two oxen,
without a driver, for Indian corn, &c. This is one of the grand
advantages of the climate of Italy, that, while in northern Europe vast
tracts of land are devoted to the exclusive growth of barley for beer,
the Italians obtain a far better beverage from the very same land that
supplies their bread corn, and without materially interfering with its
produce: for both the vines and the trees that support them are planted
so deep as to consume only the manure, which, in any case, would be
washed away; and their slight shade is rather beneficial than injurious
to the crops below.
_Fruit at Naples._--Mr. Spence saw in March grapes of several varieties,
kept through the winter, not much shrivelled, and quite free from
mouldiness. Oranges in glorious profusion (chiefly from Sorrento,
fifteen miles distant,) and so cheap as to allow the poorest of the poor
to enjoy (what Dr. Johnson complained he had never had of peaches but
once) their fill of them, and that daily. The middle-sized ones (which
are the best) sell at four for a grano, which is at the rate of ten for
a penny English; and the poor get twice as many of those beginning to
decay.
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