BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE AZORES, 
BY WILLIAM TRELEASE. 
A three months’ leave of absence in the summer of 1894 
and a shorter one in the summer of 1896 were utilized in 
collecting and preparing specimens representing as fully as 
possible the endemic and naturalized flora of the Atlantic 
group of islands known as the Azores or Agores. 
Situated in mid-ocean, about on the 38th parallel of 
north latitude, some 700 miles from Portugal, 1,150 from 
Great Britain, and 1,700 from Newfoundland, and bathed 
by a branch of the warm Gulf stream, the Azores present 
at once favorable climatic conditions for the support of a 
varied vegetation, and remoteness from the continents, 
promising peculiar and highly differentiated species. 
Though treated as one archipelago, the nine Azorean 
islands moreover really form three groups, the central of 
which (consisting of Fayal, Pico, San Jorge, Graciosa, and 
Terceira) lies nearly a degree to the south and about 125 
miles to the east of the westernmost group (consisting of 
Corvo and Flores), and nearly a degree to the north and 
about 90 miles to the west of the easternmost group (con- 
sisting of San Miguel and Sta. Maria). 
Offsetting the isolation of the Azores and their three sub- 
groups, however, is the fact that frequent ships plying 
between Portuguese or Mediterranean ports and the United 
States, and occasional European vessels en route to or from 
South America, the West Indies, etc., touch at some one 
of them, while the larger islands are regularly visited twice 
a month and the smaller ones once a month by packet boats 
from Lisbon, one of which also touches at Madeira. 
Between the islands of each group, also, there is very fre- 
quent communication by small sailing boats, which sometimes 
make the passage between the central and eastern groups, 
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