21 Mli. BUNBUEY ON THE BOTANY OP TENEBIJFFE. 



r 



naturalize themselves in Madeira (of which I have already given 

 some instances), we may fairly suppose that the plants included 

 in this category are not strictly indigenous, hut have been in- | 



troduced since the island has been brought, through human 

 agency, into communication with America and with the southern 

 hemisphere- 

 Some of the Madeira plants might almost equally well be classed 

 under this division or the first ; for, though frequent in southern 

 Europe, they are so universal throughout the warm temperate 

 and tropical zones, that they are as likely to have been originally 

 introduced into Europe, as from it. Such are Cynodon Dactylon^ 



Senehiera didyma^ Oxalis corniculata^ and Qnaphalium luteo-albicm 



The botany of Teneriffe has been so fully and so well illus- 

 ti^ated, first by Von Buch and since by Webb and Berthelot, that 

 it would be superfluous to attempt any general review of it ; I 

 will accordingly content myself with oft ering a few detached ob- 

 servations 



It has been remarked*, that the neighbourhood of Santa Cruz ^ 

 in Teneriffe is one of the most barren localities of the whole 

 Canary group. It is so in appearance, and pei-haps actually is so 

 in an agricultural view. To a botanist, however, Santa Cruz is 



very 



Even the 



appearance of the coast, as seen from the water at the season of 

 my visit, was far less baxTen tlian 1 had expected from descrip- 

 tions to find it. Tlie coast mountains, though excessively rugged, 

 abrupt and wild, are (at least in the early spring) far from being 

 destitute of verdure ; and beautifully green and fertile spots are 



discerned in the deep narrow valleys between them. A very sin- 



gular a])pearance is given to the littoral mountains by tlie round 

 pale green bushes or clumps of Eupliorhia Canariensis, whicli are 

 dotted over them in such a way as to produce a curiously spotty 

 effect, that strikes the eye at a considerable distance. 



The iin mediate neighbourhood of Santa Cruz is much more pro- 

 ductive in a botanical view than that of Fuuchal. In the very 

 outskirts of the town, as for instance aroimd tlie Lazaretto, one 

 finds some of the endemic Canarian species, such as Aizoon Cana- 

 ricnse, Notoceras CanariensiSj mingled with a great number of 

 South-European plants, such as Lamarckia atirea^ Polycarpon te- 

 tra])hyUum, Picridium Tingitanum^ Erodium malaeoides, Medicayo 



* London Journal of Eolaiiv, vol. vL p. 137. 





J 



\ 





i 



