OF THE CRIMEA.

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pagated itfelf by feed, on the ftony declivities of thofe warmdales, where it bears a diminutive juicelefs fruit. In a fimilarmanner, the olive-tree, or Seitun-Agatjb, is frequently plantedin gardens, arranged in rows, and thus produces confiderabletrunks; but it likewife occurs in many places between therocks as a wild fhrub. The fame remark applies to the fig-tree,or lndßiir^ which is more frequently difcovered in a wild ftate;though, in the orchards, it prefents three varieties of fruit;namely, the fmall white fig, a brown fig of the fame form,and laftly, a larger brown fig of an oblong fhape. Duringthe laft two fevere winters, the fig-trees were moftly frozenabove ground.

The introduction of the laurel muft alfo be afcribed to theGreeks: it has become naturalized chiefly in the Valley ofAlupka, where it grows among the rocks, producing finetrees. The Tartar inhabitants of this dale have imbibed anotion, that the travellers who fometimes vifit the foutherncoaft of the Crimea, are attraäed thither folely by the laurel,and on that account have commenced its extirpation withfavage induftry.

There are three forts of mulberry-trees, Dut or Dußi y inGrim-Tartary; the white, the common black, and a foreignkind : the laft is apparently a diftincl: fpecies, and d,i.ffers re-markably from the two former, both in its thick, ftrong leaf,which frequently refembles that of the fig, and alfo in its frurf.Its berry is nearly as large as that of the common plumb, of>apleafant acidulous tafte, being more favoury than the other forts,and afFording a very wholefome repaft. It produces large, knotpytrees, with fingularly curved ramificatiQns, and the wood of

which