and
attains its greatest elevation of 3300 ft. in the summit from which it
takes its name. The second culminates in the mountain of Santi Deca, or
Santa Decca, as it is called by misinterpretation of the Greek
designation [Greek: hoi Hagioi Deka], or the Ten Saints. The whole
island, composed as it is of various limestone formations, presents
great diversity of surface, and the prospects from the more elevated
spots are magnificent.

Corfu is generally considered the most beautiful of all the Greek isles,
but the prevalence of the olive gives some monotony to its colouring. It
is worthy of remark that Homer names, as adorning the garden of
Alcinous, seven plants only--wild olive, oil olive, pear, pomegranate,
apple, fig and vine. Of these the apple and the pear are now very
inferior in Corfu; the others thrive well and are accompanied by all the
fruit trees known in southern Europe, with addition of the Japanese
medlar (or loquat), and, in some spots, of the banana. When undisturbed
by cultivation, the myrtle, arbutus, bay and ilex form a rich brushwood
and the minor _flora_ of the island is extensive.

The common form of laud tenure is the _colonia perpetua_, by which the
landlord grants a lease to the tenant and his heirs for ever, in return
for a rent, payable in kind, and fixed at a certain proportion of the
produce. Of old, a tenant thus obtaining half the produce to himself was
held to be co-owner of the soil to the extent of one-fourth; and if he
had three-fourths of the crop, his ownership came to one-half. Such a
tenant could not be expelled except for non-payment, bad culture or the
transfer of his lease without the landlord's consent. Attempts have been
made to prohibit so embarrassing a system; but as it is preferred by the
agriculturists, the existing laws permit it. The portion of the olive
crop due to the landlord, whether by _colonia_ or ordinary lease, is
paid, not according to the actual harvest, but in keeping with the
estimates of valuators mutually appointed, who, just before the fruit is
ripe, calculate how much each tree will probably yield. The large old
fiefs (_baronie_) in Corfu, as in the other islands, have left their
traces in the form of quit-rents (known in Scotland by the name of
feu-duties), generally equal to one-tenth of the produce. But they have
been much subdivided, and the vassals may by law redeem them. Single
olive trees of first quality yield sometimes as much as 2 gallons of