g the
splendid pasture lands, 7,000 feet above the sea, are fields of
lavender, thyme, etc. From 7,000 to 6,000 feet there are forests of
pine and other gymnosperms. From 6,000 to 4,000 feet firs and the
beech are the most prominent trees. Between 4,000 and 2,000 feet we
find our familiar friends the oak, the chestnut, cereals, maize,
potatoes. Below this is the Mediterranean region. Here orange, lemon,
fig, and olive trees, the vine, mulberry, etc., flourish in the open
as well as any number of exotics, palms, aloes, cactuses, castor oil
plants, etc. It is in this region that nature with lavish hand bestows
her flowers, which, unlike their compeers in other lands, are not born
to waste their fragrance on the desert air or to die "like the bubble
on the fountain," but rather (to paraphrase George Eliot's lofty
words) to die, and live again in fats and oils, made nobler by their
presence.

The following are the plants put under contribution by the perfume
factories of the district, viz., the orange tree, bitter and sweet,
the lemon, eucalyptus, myrtle, bay laurel, cherry laurel, elder; the
labiates; lavender, spike, thyme, etc.; the umbelliferous fennel and
parsley, the composite wormwood and tarragon, and, more delicate than
these, the rose, geranium, cassie, jasmin, jonquil, mignonette, and
violet.

THE PERFUME FACTORY.

In the perfume factory everything is done by steam. Starting from the
engine room at the bottom, the visitor next enters the receiving room,
where early in the morning the chattering, patois-speaking natives
come to deliver the flowers for the supply of which they have
contracted. The next room is occupied with a number of steam-jacketed
pans, a mill, and hydraulic presses. Next comes the still room, the
stills in which are all heated by steam. In the "extract" department,
which is next reached, are large tinned-copper drums, fitted with
stirrers, revolving in opposite directions on vertical axes.
Descending to the cellar--the coolest part of the building--we find
the simple apparatus used in the process of enfleurage. The apparatus
is of two kinds. The smaller is a frame fitted with a sheet of stout
glass. A number of these, all of the same size, when placed one on the
top of the other, form a tolerably air tight box. The larger is a
frame fitted with wire netting, over which a piece of molleton is
placed. The other rooms are used for bottling, labeling, etc.

The following are some of the det