RECOLLECTIONS OF TKNERIFFE. 443 



Among the heaths a very beautiful Myosotis occurred spar- 

 ingly. It was of very dwarf habit, with large and brilliant 

 flowers, somewhat resembling M. alpestrls. I have, however, 

 among the Scottish mountains, always observed the latter to 

 grow upon moist rocks, whereas this plant seemed to delight 

 in the most dry and exposed spots. Towards the upper part 

 of the heathy region bushes of Adenocarpus frankenioides made 

 their appearance, and continued to increase in size and number, 

 till we entered the region of Leguminoscs, at the foot of which 

 it is the prevailing plant. 



The surface of the ground was now much less rocky, and was 

 covered with fine pumice, very few of the fragments being 

 larger than a hazel-nut. Having been unsuccessful in our 

 search for pods on the bushes of Adenocarpus, we adopted the 

 plan of carefully taking up some of the surface of the loose soil 

 beneath them, which, when afterwards carefully picked over, 

 yielded a pretty good harvest of the seeds. Our path often 

 wound among towering masses of trachytic lava, whose dark 

 rocks were here and there studded with tufts of a moss, not 

 in fruit, but much resembling Grimmia pidvinata. Still 

 ascending, we next noticed some bushes of Cytisus mdtigenus, 

 intermixed with the Adenocarptts, warning us that we were 

 approaching the termination of our ascent. This singular 

 leafless broom, called Retama by the natives, is, I believe, 

 peculiar to the Peak, where it occupies a very elevated station, 

 being most abundant and luxuriant at the height of nearly ten 

 thousand feet. It nearly covers the extraordinary plateau of 

 the Caiiadas, where it forms a very striking feature in the 

 landscape, and even occurs some little distance up the cone 

 itself, reaching, with the exception of Viola cheiranthifolia and 

 Silene nocteolens, the greatest elevation of any phaenogamous 

 plant in the island. Ail at once, emerging from a narrow 

 rocky defile, we found ourselves in that most extraordinary 

 inclosure or basin, known to the islanders as the Canadas, but 

 generally called by the English the Pumice-Stone Plain. 

 Certainly, in that part it is any thing but a plain, though level 

 when compared with the snowy cone which rises in its centre. 

 Its aspect is most singular, from the uniform drab colour of 

 the pumice which strews its surface, relieved only by isolated 

 masses of dark lava, as well as by the numerous Retama 

 bushes which stud it in all directions. 



