PLANTS OF THE AZORES 23 



Amphiroa anceps Decne., no. 1346. On rocks below low-water 

 mark, Meyer Island, May 19, 1908. 



Geogr. Distr. Norfolk Island. 



Cheilosporitm elegans Aresch., no. 1347. On rocks below low- 

 water mark, Meyer Island. 



Geogr. Distr. New Zealand. New South Wales. 



Gorallina officinalis L., nos. 1320, 1357. Rock-pools, Meyer 

 Island ; also Sunday Island. " Forms a dense coating up to an 

 inch high on rocks from low tide to about half-tide mark, and in 

 rock-pools." 



Geogr. Distr. General. 



Gorallina sp., no. 1329. Sunday Island. 



Gorallina Giwieri Lamx., nos. 1342, 1343. Cast up on Denham 

 Bay Beach, Sunday Island. 



Geogr. Distr. South Australia. Tasmania. 



PLANTS OF THE AZORES. 

 By G. Claridge Druce, M.A., F.L.S. 



In the early March of 1909 I made a short stay in San Miguel, 

 the chief island of the Azores, which I reached after a tempestuous 

 passage from Madeira. The islands are about 700 miles from 

 Portugal, 1150 from Britain, and 1700 from Newfoundland. The 

 country is well cultivated, maize being the chief corn crop, but 

 potatoes, sweet-potatoes, and other vegetables are grown, and 

 there is a considerable extent of pasturage on which many cows 

 are reared. Sheep, too, are raised not only for their flesh and 

 wool, but are also used as draught animals. The people are 

 honest, industrious, and kindly. The climate, although some- 

 what damp and relaxing, is very equable, frost being unknown 

 at the sea-level. The rainfall is only about twenty-nine inches, 

 but there are boisterous winds, which sweep the place with 

 great violence. Tropical, or perhaps more correctly subtropical, 

 vegetation flourishes, and some of the Quintas abound with 

 a most varied collection of trees and flowering shrubs brought 

 from almost all parts of the world. Many adventitious plants 

 abound, and indeed give a key-note to the flora. Pineapple culture 

 has now almost replaced the growth of the St. Michael oranges. 

 The scenery is somewhat marred by the high lava-walls, built to 

 shelter the gardens, and they stretch so far from the town of 

 Ponta Delgada that it is difficult to obtain a view, or to get free 

 from them into open country. 



The Azores are practically volcanic cones, San Miguel being 

 entirely volcanic, so that calcareous species are absent. In the 

 Crater of Fundas, with its extremely interesting geysers, there is 

 very beautiful scenery, the high walls of the crater being covered 

 with vegetation, including not only native species, but the planted 

 Japanese Cryptomeria and the Australian wattle, besides the 



