112 A VOYAGE TO AUG. 



here, agreeing exactly with the description given by 

 Tournefbrt and Linnaeus, of the tea shrub, as growing 

 in China and japan. It is reckoned a weed, and he 

 roots out thousands of them every year, from his 

 vineyards. The Spaniards, however, of the island, 

 sometimes use it as tea, and ascribe to it all the 

 qualities of that imported from China. They also 

 give it the name of tea ; but what is remarkable, they 

 say it was found here when the islands were first dis- 

 covered. 



"Another botanical curiosity, mentioned by him, is 

 what they call the impregnated lemon, * It is a perfect 

 and distinct lemon, inclosed within another, differing 

 from the outer one only in being a little more 

 globular. The leaves of the tree that produces this 

 sort, are much longer than those of the common one; 

 and it was represented to me as being crooked, and 

 not equal in beauty. 



" From him I learnt also, that a certain sort of grape 

 growing here, is reckoned an excellent remedy in 

 phthisical complaints. And the air and climate, in 

 general, are remarkably healthful, and particularly 

 adapted to give relief in such diseases. This he 

 endeavoured to account for, by it's being always in 

 one's power to procure a different temperature of the 

 air, by residing at different heights in the island; and 

 he expressed his surprise that the English physicians 

 should never have thought of sending their consump- 

 tive patients to Teneriffe, instead of Nice or Lisbon. 

 How much the temperature of the air varies here, I 

 myself could sensibly perceive, only in riding from 

 Santa Cruz up to Laguna; and you may ascend till 

 the cold becomes intolerable. I was assured that no 

 person can live comfortably within a mile of the per- 



* The writer of the Relation of Teneriffe, in Sprat's History, 

 p. 207, takes notice of this lemon as produced here, and calls it 

 Pregnada. Probably, empremiada, the Spanish word for impreg- 

 nated, is the name it goes by. 



