Some 12,000 people on the slopes of the Balkans, at Kerzanlik and other places, entirely depend upon their rose plantations. These are on light soil, fully exposed to the sun, at over 1200 feet above the sea. It is interesting to find that the pure mountain air strengthens the perfume, for these Balkan roses are fifty per cent. richer in essences than those of lowland plants.
Another interesting plant much cultivated in the Riviera is the Cassier (Acacia farnesiana). It is really a native of India, but was introduced from the West Indies to Europe in 1656. Cannes, Grasse, Antibes, and Nice are the places where it is most cultivated. Its flowers appear from July to November. An old tree may yield as much as twelve to twenty pounds of flowers, worth about five to six francs. But 116 pounds of flowers only yield about a pound of essence, so that it is not surprising that this last is worth £60 the pound.
The cultivation is a little uncertain, for a temperature of three or four degrees below the freezing-point kills the trees.
The pomades made from many of these flowers are produced as follows: A series of trays are covered with fat or grease; the petals are placed on the grease and replaced by fresh petals every twenty-four hours or so; in the end the grease is so saturated with scent that it forms pomade or pomatum.
Thus these half-desert countries are by no means without interest from a botanical point of view. The conditions of life are no doubt hard both for plants and animals. The scent so richly produced depends upon the strong sunlight and pure air. It is very useful, partly because it attracts those useful insects which carry the pollen, but also because such odours are distasteful to grazing animals. The gums, incenses, thorns, and spines are all of great use to the plant in its dangerous struggle for existence with hungry camels and thirsty soil.
When men understood how to irrigate the soil, and before they were foolish enough to cut down the forests which once guarded the mountain springs, these half-deserts were exceedingly prosperous; they were full of vigorous intellectual life, and of strong, hardy, and industrious peoples. Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, and the Northern Coast of Africa from Morocco to Egypt, were rich and wonderful countries.
But it was not only the destruction of the forests that has ruined them. The curse of Mohammed, the fatalism produced by his religion, and the slavery which is a necessary part thereof, have destroyed the people in mind, body, and spirit. Even in Greece, Algiers, and Cyprus there has been as yet but small recovery.
In the future, not merely these countries, but Northern Nigeria, British East Africa, and South-west Cape Colony, may have as rich a history as Greece, if British brain and energy are helped by the strong muscles of the African.