. Leaving Cazalla and crofling feveral bleak mountains,
it requires nine hours to reach Cantillana, on the banks
of the Guadalquivir, the Sierra Morena terminating three
leagues before at the narrow pafs o f Montegil. After
croffing the river at Cantillana the face o f the country is
totally changed ; the terebinthus, ciftus and lentifcus
are feen no more, nor the mountainous plants obferved
before between Almaden and this place, from whence
one may conclude that hitherto the foil was much of the
fame nature, for in coming from the Pyrenees to the fouth-
ward, thefe fierras are common, but going northward towards
France, it is juft the reverfe, and no real mountains
are to be feen in the interior parts o f that kingdom, the
country confifting chiefly of ftrata o f earth one over the
©ther.
An extenfive plain reaches from Cantillana to the city
o f Seville, which requires five hous to pafs over,
confifting of poor land, without any ftones, but producing
a great deal of dwarf palm, or palmetto, the
charmer ops humilis of Linnaeus, which covers the ground;
like fe rn : the leaves being tied together ferve to,
make befoms fufficient to fupply the whole kingdom;
[a); two forts of wild afparagus alfo grow here with a;
{a) A very accurate modem traveller,, having given a curious account o f thofe parts of,
Spain which he vifited, with a very circumftantial detail of the Palmetto, I prefume the following
extra# from his entertaining and interefting work will not .be unacceptable: “ The Gampina of;
very
very thin ikin, one green and the other white, which
before they bud their leaves have a multitude o f flowers
as white as fnow. In this plain there is a great number
of olive trees, whole trunks are fcarcely any thing better
than bark, from their bad method of planting thefe trees,
they doing no more than taking a ftake o f an olive tree,
of the iize o f one’s arm, flit at the bottom fix inches
into four parts ; they put a ftone between the flits,
and then fet it about two feet under ground, making a
trench round it to keep in the water; the top of the
ftake being uncovered, the yam penetrates that way, and
by degrees with the warm air rots the infide.
The antient and famous city of Seville has been fully
defcribed by modern travellers ; its ftreets are paved
Marvella, be fays, produces an amazing quantity o f palmettos, with little dates exceedingly good;
they grow in clufters at the root of the ihrubs of the fizeandihapeofaplumb, o f a reddiih folpur,
bearing a large ftone like the great palm tree date; the root of the palmetto is very curious, round
it are ranged the ftamina o f each branch of leaves, with a double coating o f dry brown
fibres, netted like lace, and which are capable of being fpua and ufed as ftrong thread. Nature,
by fuch extraordinary care in preferving the root o f the palmetto dry and free from
humidity, Ihews that a hard fandy foil, little rain, and a hoi fun, are neceflary to the welfare
of this plant; each plant ihoots up to the h.eight o f ten or fifteen inches, and in a-few days
after it has attained its growth, divides and fpreads itfelf like a fan into fifty long thin leaves
that- concenter in-the ftem. They are -Of a deep-green, exceedingly tough, efpecially -the -ftalk,
which is armed with prickles. They ufe them as brooms, and ea t the fruit which is very de*
licious, and no way inferior, except in fize, to the palm tree date. The rpot, which is thick
and eight inches long, is not only wholefome food, but very palatable, and eat with eager-
nefs by the commpn people. The infide is tender and fweet, though accompanied with a bit j
temefs, difagreeable to thofe who are not ufed to it. The young ihopts, pregnant with feeds,
are juicy and pleafant.*’ One root may contain two pounds of Food.' See journey from
Gibraltar to Malaga, by Francis Carter, Efq. London, 1777.
Q,q 2 with