768 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



made baskets, mats, and fisli cords. The flower stalks slioot up to a 

 heiglit of fifteen to twenty feet in an incredibly short time, and like 

 mammoth candelabra, as they look, are a striking feature of the 

 landscape. The graceful pepper tree, commonly planted along the 

 highroads, seems to be wild in a few localities. Large groves of 

 magnificent chestnut trees are found on Canary and Teneriffe. The 

 fruit is gathered and sold in great quantities. The almond industry 

 also flourishes in certain regions, and the beautiful trees cover the 

 valleys of a most charming part of central Grand Canary. Tig trees 

 were introduced by some of the earliest European adventurers, and 

 have now become thoroughly established, their fruit being one of the 

 staple foods of the islanders. Oranges and bananas, the chief exports 

 of the country, only grow when planted. Tomatoes, the third great 

 product, are occasionally wild. 



But the collector's richest fields are the forests. It is impossible to 

 picture to one's self the paradise these islands must have been before 

 the conquering Spaniard wantonly destroyed so much of the wood- 

 land. Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are now entirely destitute of 

 native trees, and with the trees went many precious springs, so that 

 these two islands are now practically desert. The chaplains of 

 Bethencourt, who were in Fuerteventura early in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury (1402), describe it as " covered with rich vegetation; lentiscos, 

 olives, date palms, tamarisks, and cardos {Eupliorhia canariensis) 

 made dense woods," and as having numerous brooks and abounding 

 in herbs and plants and fragrant flowers, which gave to the island a 

 charming and agreeable aspect. Pedro Gomez Escudero, writing of 

 Canaria in the same century, says : " The whole island was a garden, 

 all covered with palms; because from one place, which is called 

 Tamarasaite, we took more than sixty thousand little palms, and from 

 other parts an infinite number." And Dr. Chil says: "After the 

 conquerors and their descendants had for more than three hundred 

 years declared war to the death against the forests, yet at the begin- 

 ning of this century many leagues were so covered with dense woods 

 that, in going from Telde to San Lorenzo, one arrived in this latter 

 village after a summer day's journey without having seen a ray of 

 sunlight, having passed continually beneath a copious foliage where 

 plants grew perennially fresh and luxuriant." These incontestable 

 faets seem hardly credible, for one would need an abiding supply 

 of scientific enthusiasm now to stay long enough among the scorched 

 rocks of Fuerteventura to make the careful study of their life which 

 is needed. Hierro and Palma are still well wooded, and the extensive 

 forests and abundant w^ater supply of Gomera make it, in Dr. Chil's 

 estimation, the most beautiful member of the archipelago. Only 

 scattered tracts of woodland remain in Canary and Teneriffe. 



