TO FUERTEVENTURA AND LANCEROTTE. = DES 
mountains of Handia form a perpendicular wall towards the north, - 
whilst their southern side is intersected by long ridges, between which - 
are valleys sloping gently down to the torrid African beach. The 
clouds borne by the trade-winds rest stationary on the northern side, 
so that, unable to pass over the crest of rocks, they abandon all the 
southern coast to the most frightful sterility. Fuerteventura, at its 
southern extremity, possessed doubtless, like Lancerotte at Famara, a 
zone of evergreen forests, which descended perhaps very low, but which 
has receded and disappeared before the great destroyer—man; a few 
remains now only mark the spot. Suspended over horrid precipices, or 
seated on the lofty and inaccessible cornices of the Pico de la Zarza 
and the Pico del Frayle, the Arbol de la Cumére, the wild olive, an 
another low shrub, still brave the axe and the teeth of the goats. Se 
from below, these little woods look like black marks on the grey 1 
This Arbol de la Cumbre, of which I obtained a few specimens in fruit 
with great difficulty, and at the risk of breaking my neck, is nothing 
but the Catha cassinoides. I found established under its shade and 
around it a little flora, exclusively Handian, composed of an Argyran- 
themum, of four Petrophyes, of an Aichryson, a Leucophaé, a Micromeria, 
a splendid frutescent Bupleurum, unluckily without flower or fruit, and 
an Echium with white flowers veined with azure, whose habit is more 
Caboverdian than Canarian. Three Ferns, the Asplenium acutum, Bory, 
and palmatum, and the Polypodium vulgare, clothe the humid ledges 
of the rocks, and the ground is enamelled with the golden flowers | 
the Ranunculus Teneriffe. With the exception of this little verdant 
region, the whole mountain is overrun by the Nauplius sericeus, a ple 
eminently social, whose flowers exhale a strong odour of Elder, while 
an Orobanche, as yet probably undescribed, feeds on its roots. Hei 
and there you meet with different species of Cichoracee, and t 
them a fine Andryala, and tufts of a beautiful Cerastium* with. 
branches and flesh-coloured flowers. 
The southern side is a true Arabia Petræa ; the Jin i 
appears in mass, with little mimie forests of Kleinia neriifolia, mixed 
with the stunted tree-like Zabayba dulce (Euphorbia balsamifera) 
which some enormous individuals may be seen on the heights, resem: 
bling, with their branches interlaced, their tabular summits, and 
. almost quadrangular contour, the altar of Delos, built by the infant 
* Probably Rhodalsine _ oy: (E. B. W.) i 
