To the vegetation, however, is no less im portant than the annual amount of rain, the manner in which it is distributed in the differ eat seasons. In the southern portion there are two months during the warm season in which there falls not a drop of rain. In the north rains are frequent even in summer, often in the form of noon-day thunder showers, which are destructive to the ripening fruit in the fields. (Slimmer average of rainfall: Palermo, 28 mm.; Naples, 55 mm.; Venice, 198 mm.; Milan, 236 mm. Winter average: Palermo, 292 mm.; Naples, 281 mm.; Venice, 123 mm.; Milan, 193 mm.).
From all this we may conclude that it is not very exact to speak of 'the climate of Italy,* when there are so many different cli mates, according to the topography of the vari ous regions.
Local conditions serve again to modify these distinctions, and are determined more espe cially by the formation, altitude and position of the mountains and valleys with regard to the prevailing direction of the aerial currents.
But all these variations do not modify the influence of latitude to such an extent as to prevent Italy, especially on the Tyrrhenian and in the central and southern latitudes, from being noted, in comparison with Europe, for an extraordinary mild climate, rendered still more agreeable by a larger number of cloudless days, and often made delightful by an enchanting splendor of the sky.
Animal and Plant consequence of these conditions it is enough to refer to the characteristics of the Italian vegetation. The Italian flora is considered by botanists to be ex ceedingly varied, owing to the temperate cli mate, as well as to the variety of climates which are suitable to a greater number of botanical species. In addition to this, for a long peridd, man has voluntarily, and involun tarily, been increasing the species. Together with plants belonging to cold regions, there flourish in certain places plants belonging tq warm countries. To mention only the best known species, in the south there are orange groves, hedges of agave and spunzie, and cot ton, sugar-cane and date palms ripen there; but many of these and other more or less tropical plants may be found also in places on all the Tyrrhenian slope as far as the north, where they even brighten the Ligurian landscape. Similarly, there grow quite extensively in Italy, especially near the sea, evergreen trees and shrubs, which give a characteristic appearance to the winter landscape. But most important of all is' the olive, ,which grows all over central and southern Italy as high up as 1,600 or 1,900 feet above sea-level, and in the islands as high up as 2,600 feet. The olive does not grow in the Venetian and Po plains, on account of the severity of the winters, but it may be found in places protected from the north wind and weather, as on the sunny slopes of the Lombardy and Venetian foothills of the Alps, and of the volcanic Colli Euganci. And to gether with the olive may be found other southern vegetation. In the plain of the Po the summer climate makes remunerative the cul tivation of not only vines and other fruit-bear ing shrubs, and exotic plants, but also the cul tivation of rice. In the whole of Italy, there fore, in the plains and on the less precipitous slopes are cultivated the different cereals, in cluding maize in some regions, for instance, Abruzso, and in some spots 2,600 feet above sea-leveL And while; in Continental Italy, the vigctrous winters suspend vegetation, in South Italy the groves of lemons and oranges and the pastures remain green, and many trees and shrubs are covered with leaves and flowers.
As for the animal kingdom. there are no species that have characteristics worthy of mention in these brief geographical outlines. Many centuries of history and the great num ber of inhabitants have reduced to a minimum the species of animals that • are not useful to man. Agriculture is carried on in favorable regions; in summer on the mountains, and in winter on the marine plains. Fishing is carried on extensively on'the sea coasts, and cattle, swine, sheep, horses, silk-worms are raised in more-or less-abundance. Many species of fish are found in the Tyrrhenian Sea; among them are sardines and tunny-fish. There is also an industry in coral. The distribution of these various industries depends, of course, on the oro-hydrographic conditions.
Population.— The Italians form one peo plc, and with very few exceptions speak one national' language. But they present an extraor dinary number of variations in character and physical type, as well as in dialect, which is a natural consequence of the varied regional and climatic conditions of the country, and of the many thousand' years of historical changes, in vasions, conquests, intermingling and separa and the various phases of civilization, out of which Italy of the present day has evolved. Before the Middle Ages, ancient history gives a record of the inhabitants of Italy as Iberi, Si cani, Siculi, Ligurl, Veneti, lapigi, Etruschi and the great family of the Italian people prop erly so-called: Umbri, Sabelli, Latini, Volsci, Oscbi, and in the north the Galli, besides' the Greek and Phoenician colonies of the south. Modern glottology finds traces of all these stocks the division and differences of the present' Italian dialects. Then came invasions and immigrations, small and large, of Germans, Arabs, Slays, Spaniards, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, and during the subsequent centuries; and as a last-relic of these, there are found at the present day, within the kingdom, some isolated patches in the Alps, and in the Venetian foothills of the Alps; and in the high valleys of the Sesla and the Toce; Franco provencals in the Piedntontese Alps; Slays in the Julian Alps ; Greeks, Albanians, Slays and others in southern Italy and the islands. But taken altogether these colonies do not' amount to-day to more than about 200,000 souls. Then again, this number 'is gradually decreasing with the Multiplication of modern means of com munication and with the increasing association between different districts. Further, the so called "Compariimenti territoriali' (Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Latium, etc.), which are more or less directly refernble to transmitted histor ical' divisions, have their raison d'ętre in a doable order of facts .