32 MB. BUXBURT ON THE BOTANY OF TEKEBIFrE. 



witli the Adenocarpus alone, as some of our commons and wastes 

 in England are covered with Furze. It is in general a low com- 

 pact rigid bushj peculiar in its multitude of short lateral branches 

 and the minute closely-crowded grey -green leaves ; by no means a 

 handsome plant when out of flower ; but here and there, in shel- 

 tered spots, it assumes the character of a little tree. It is very 

 surprising to me, that Von Humboldt, in his famous description of 

 the Peak, should have omitted all mention of this plant, Avhich 

 occupies by itself so wide a tract of ground. It is one of the 

 most eminently social plants in the world. 



The first bushes of the JRetama hlanca^ Cytisits nubigenus (Spar- 

 tiumnubigenunty Soland.), appear immediately below the Ciimhre^ or 

 ridge surrounding the actual Peak. Here the Adenocarpus is 

 thinly scattered amidst the wilderness of loose stones and rugged 

 rocks ; and when the ridge is surmounted, and we enter the great 

 plateau of pumice-stone {^Las CafiW^^), no vegetation is to be seen 

 except the Retama^ forming large isolated bushes at considerable 

 distances apart. These bushes are of a very regular hemisphe- 

 rical form. I was assured by a most intelligent observer, that the 

 fragrance of the flowers of this plant is so powerful, that in the 

 early morning it may sometimes be distinctly perceived at the 

 Port of Orotava, 



To a botanist acquainted witli the Alps, there is something very 

 striking in the entire absence, from the upper regions of TenerifFe, 

 of all those forms which we are accustomed to consider as alpine. 

 In place of the fine close carpet of small grasses, and dwarf herba- 

 ceous plants with brilliant flowers, which clothes the lieights 

 above the region of trees on the European mountains, we see here 

 a very few species of rigid shrubs, monopolizing vast spaces. Eor 

 although, according to the observ^ations of Von Buch, and of Webb 

 and Berthelot, the region of the Gumhre is not entirely destitute of 

 herbaceous plants, yet they are rare, and occur only as single in- 

 dividuals, thinly scattered. Nowhere is there anything like a turf. 

 Even mosses occur only in small scattered tufts on the larger 

 rocks. The peculiar aridity and unstable character of the soil are 

 evidently the causes of tliis. The mountain vegetation most ana- 

 logous to that of the Peak of Teneriffe is (as Webb and Berthelot 

 have shown) that of Etna. The upper region of Pico, in the 

 Azores, seems very different in its botanical physiognomy *, being 

 characterized by Calluna vulgaris^ Erica scoparia, Vaccinimn Made- 

 rense, a Myrsine^ and a Juniper; while it is entirely wanting 



* Watson, in Hooker's London Joum. Bot. ii. 401-405. 



