﻿352 Cook : Flora of the Ca vry Islands 



of their nearest relatives has a bearing on many important ques- 

 tions of the geologic and biologic history of the archipelago, as 

 well as upon the more general problems of the distribution of life. 

 At present, however, such study is largely handicapped by the 

 want of systematic work of a sufficiently thorough and final char- 

 acter. For instance, the great work of Webb and Berthelot in- 

 cludes a large number of species which later writers, notably the 

 English botanists, have placed as synonyms of south European 

 forms. Webb and Berthelot had, however, wide and practical 

 preparatory acquaintance with the flora of the Spanish peninsula 

 and the character of their work justifies the placing of a high 

 value upon their judgment in the field, at least in comparison with 

 that of others working with herbarium specimens only. They 

 spent eight years on the islands, a far longer period than all their 

 successors taken together. They seem, moreover, to have had 

 very advanced ideas with reference to both genera and species and 

 often approximated more closely in views and methods to Ameri- 

 can workers of the present day than to the Hookerian school of 

 their own time. Still, many parts of their work need revision and 

 the whole should be modernized and corrected in the light oi 

 recent discoveries and changes in nomenclature. Much might also 

 be expected from a renewal of careful field work, especially in the 

 eastern and western extremities of the archipelago which were not 

 at all, or only slightly explored by Webb and Berthelot. 



Fuerteventura and Lanzarote — the two most easterly islands 

 ire rather more continental in vegetation than the others. Their 

 original aspect can now hardly be imagined. Both are to-day 

 absolutely destitute of forests. As Dr. Chil * says, " It is to be 

 deplored that the first conquerors, as also the subsequent settlers 

 of these islands, occupied themselves in destroying the woodland 

 w r hich there f< 



rm 



7 J. 



been of immense benefit to the inhabitants who would not see, as 

 they have for a long time been seeing, that the clouds seem to flee 

 from their sky, and every ten years, at the least, the earth pro- 

 duces a half harvest, wherefore the people are obliged to migrate 

 to the other islands or to the Americas, to secure a piece o 

 bread." 



* u Estudios de las Islas Canarias." 



