8 NOTES OF A BOTANICAL TOUR 
Perado, Viburnum Tinus, Laurus Canariensis (£), and a hand- 
some shrubby Euphorbia also occur in the ravines. Pteris, 
aquilina and Blechnum boreale are very abundant among the 
shrubs ; and many other ferns may be seen growing luxuriantly 
in the ravines. 
As we keep ascending towards the Caldeira, these shrubs 
become less plentiful. The large mass breaks into clumps, 
between which various grasses and other herbaceous plants 
form a pasturage for cattle, and the more humble Menziesia 
polifolia bespangles the ground. Higher still, the shrubs 
are reduced to single and stunted bushes; and, at last, at 
the rim of the Caldeira, they cease altogether; the ground 
being there covered with a thick elastic mass of grass and 
moss. Serapias cordigera occurs rather frequently above 
Flamingos, and Erythrea diffusa much more so. Between 
Flamingos and the Caldeira, chiefly in the ravines or on banks 
facing fromthesun, Iobservedspeciesof Bellis, Luzula, Lysima- 
chia, Carex and Cardamine, which were unknown to me, but 
to which Mr. Guthrie has attached names on the labels distri- 
buted with his specimens. Tormentilla officinalis and Fragaria 
vesca were among the commonest plants on the declivities of 
the mountains. 
But I must now rest my pen here, without taking you and 
it into that lovely valley of the Caldeira, so interesting to the 
botanist, so delightful to the lover of scenery. "The Caldeira 
of Fayal, the Peak of Pico, the waterfalls of Flores, and the 
precipice of Corvo, are the four most inviting localities for the 
botanist who visits these more westerly of the Azorean 
islands. Another day I shall be happy to send you some 
account of them, as well as a full list of the plants collected ; 
to which, the geographical position of the islands, so far in the 
Atlantic, must give some interest with the readers of the 
Journal of Botany. Y may here just remark that there are no — 
indigenous trees in the islands which I visited. The charac- 
teristic features of the vegetation consist in the abundance of 
evergreen shrubs and ferns, with a few peculiar alpine plants. 
Some of the shrubs are almost arborescent ; the stems of the 
cic dadas 
