PLANT LIFE OF THE CANARY ISLANDS. 



759 



features in common. They are, moreover, connected by a narrow 

 submarine plateau which, perhaps, argues a former means of more 

 intimate communication. 



The general character of the Canary flora is that of the Mediter- 

 ranean region. Some species show Indian or South African rela- 

 tionships ; still fewer have American affinities. The Gulf Stream still 

 brings drift, including seeds and the branches of trees, from the Ber- 

 mudas by way of Madeira to our islands. Columbus, who made fre- 

 quent visits to Gomera, found on its shores fragments of West Indian 



r - 



EuPHoKBiA CANARiENsis, growiiig ou bare volcanic rocks. 



plants, and was thereby strengthened in his belief in a western con- 

 tinent. An occasional east wind — such as sometimes brings armies 

 of grasshoppers — may carry seeds from the Sahara region. Indeed, 

 the woolly seeds of Gomphocarpus fruticosus are said to have been 

 brought on the spiny legs of the grasshoppers. But the prevalent 

 winds and ocean currents of to-day form a barrier between the 

 Canaries and the continent, and among the sixteen hundred and 

 twenty-seven species enumerated from Morocco by Ball, only two 

 hundred and sixteen are found on these islands. That the former 

 more effective means of communication must have been of very 



