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CATALONIA OATALPA limestone. The climate of Catalonia varies with the altitude of the region, but is in gen- eral temperate, the heat being moderated by sea or mountain breezes. The country is con- sidered healthy, the interior more so than the coast. Although the 'orange, lemon, almond, olive, and fig grow on the plains, they are produced in less abundance than in other districts of Spain ; but orchard fruits ripen in perfection. The vine is exceedingly produc- tive, and wine is the staple export. Agricul- ture is further advanced in Catalonia than in any other part of Spain. This is partly owing to the industrious character of the people, partly to the nature of the soil, and in a con- siderable measure to the more equitable ten- ure of land. All kinds of grain are cultivated and consumed at home, leaving no surplus for export. The soil is usually a light loam, easily worked. Irrigation being necessary to make it productive, it is found profitable to grow wine and oil in preference to breadstutts. Flax, hemp, dyestutts, honey, and wax are produced in considerable quantity. Nuts and cork are important articles of export. Silk growing is but little attended to, and the raising of wool and cattle is of comparatively small extent. Since the liberation of the South American provinces, the commerce of Catalonia has greatly fallen off. The shoe trade, calico weaving, and ship building, which were for- merly important branches of industry, have al- most ceased to exist. Activity, however, con- tinues in the fabrication of silks, velvets, ribbons, hosiery, linen and laces, leather, hats, cordage, brandy, cannon and small arms, glass, soap, hollow ware, and copper utensils. These are exported to France, England, and Holland, in exchange for textiles, jewelry, codfish, her- ring, and other articles of consumption. Along the coast a large proportion of the inhabitants are engaged in the fisheries, and there are few good harbors. Catalonia under the Romans origi- nally belonged to Hispania Citerior, but in the time of Augustus it formed part of the Pro- vincia Tarraconensis. Caesar made Tarragona the centre of his operations during his first war in Spain, and it was the chief place of residence of the generals who succeeded him. Early in the 5th century the province was oc- cupied by the Goths and Alans, and its name is supposed by some to be derived from a com- bination of the names of these two nations, and to have been at first Gothalnnia. In 712 it was occupied by the Moors, who held it only a few years ; and in 788 it formed part of the vast empire of Charlemagne. His successors, however, maintained only a nominal sove- reignty over it, the real power being in the hands of several counts among whom its terri- tory was divided. In the early part of the 12th century the most powerful among these was Raymond Berenger, count of Barcelona, who succeeded in reducing all the others to sub- jection. In 1137 he married Petronilla, heiress of the throne of Aragon, and Catalonia was united to that kingdom. It afterward rebelled several times, but toward the end of the 15th century it became an integral part of the Spanish empire, though still retaining many of its peculiar rights and privileges. Philip IV. having attempted to take these away, it revolted in 1640, and in 1641 gave itself up to Louis XIII. of France. It was restored to Spain in 1659, and again occupied by the French from 1094 to 1697. During the war of the succession it supported the archduke Charles. After the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, by which the right of Philip V. to the throne of Spain was ac- knowledged, Catalonia continued for a year to resist, but was subdued and deprived of its ancient rights and liberties in 1714. The French occupied it in 1808, after having been strongly resisted by the inhabitants, and again evacuated it in 1813. In 1828 it ottered a staunch resistance to the restoration of abso- lutism under Ferdinand VII. Its rural in- habitants have always been warm supporters of the Carlist party, and it is at present (1878) the chief scene of their operations. Barcelona, on the other hand, has made itself equally con- spicuous by its republican spirit. CATALPA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order bignoniacece, whose generic char- acteristics are a two-parted calyx, a bell-shap- ed, swelling corolla, five stamens, two of which only are fertile, a long, slender, cylindrical pod, and broadly winged seeds. There are three species, all of them trees, with simple leaves and panicled, terminal flowers. The C. yringifolia (Loud.) is indigenous in the south- ern parts of the United States, and is cultivated as an ornamental tree in most of the cities of the northern states. It is distinguished by its Catalpa syringlfolla. silver-gray, slightly furrowed bark, its wide- spreading head, disproportioned in size to the diameter of its trunk, the fewness of its branch-