Mentone, Cairo and Corfu . e characteristic trees of Mentone,whose foliage forms its verdure, and whose fruit formsits commerce. The orange groves were insignificantand the oranges sour compared with those of Florida;but the olive and lemon groves were new to us, and inthemselves beautiful and luxuriant. Our hotel stoodon the edge of an old olive grove climbing the moun-tain-side slowly on broad terraces rising endlessly asone looked up. After some weeks experience wefound that we represented collectively various shadesof opinion concerning olive groves in general, whichmay be given as follows
Mentone, Cairo and Corfu . e characteristic trees of Mentone,whose foliage forms its verdure, and whose fruit formsits commerce. The orange groves were insignificantand the oranges sour compared with those of Florida;but the olive and lemon groves were new to us, and inthemselves beautiful and luxuriant. Our hotel stoodon the edge of an old olive grove climbing the moun-tain-side slowly on broad terraces rising endlessly asone looked up. After some weeks experience wefound that we represented collectively various shadesof opinion concerning olive groves in general, whichmay be given as follows: Mrs. Clary: These old trees are to me so sacred!When I walk under their great branches I always thinkof the dove bringing the leaf to the ark, of the oliveboughs of the entry into Jerusalem, and of the Mountof Olives. The Professor: Olives are interesting because theirmanner of growth allows them to attain an almost in-definite age. The trunk decays and splits, but thebark, which still retains its vigor, grows around the. BRINGING LEMONS EROM THE TERRACE 65 dissevered portions, making, as it were, new trunks ofthem, although curved and distorted, so that three orfour trees seem to be growing from the same root. Itis this which gives the tree its characteristic knottedand gnarled appearance. This species of olive attainsa very fine development in the neighborhood of Men-tone ; there are said to be trees still alive at Cap Mar-tin which were coeval with the Roman Empire. Verney: The light in an old olive grove is beauti-ful and peculiar; it is like nothing but itself. It isquite impossible to give on canvas the gray shade ofthe long aisles without making them dim, and they arenot in the least dim. I have noticed, too, that the sun-shine never filters through sufficiently to touch theground in a glancing beam, or even a single point ofyellow light; and yet the leaves are small, and the fo-liage does not appear thick. Baker: Olives and olive oil, the groundwork of ev-ery good din
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidmentonecairo, bookyear1896
