﻿358 Cook : Flora of the Canary Islands 



liquor. The European olive grows wild in groves with Pistaaa 

 lentiscus. The Canary willow and the indigenous Phoenix 

 dactylifera are not infrequent in the beds of wet barrancos, while 

 the native species of Tamarix and a Juniperus, now almost extinct, 

 prefer the dry ones. Occasionally one sees on a precipitous wall 

 a solitary specimen or a little group of the famous Dracaena Draco 

 from which the " dragon's blood/' so highly valued as a charm, 

 medicine, and dyestuff, was obtained by the medievals. The her- 

 baceous element of the forest flora is rich in peculiar species s 

 as Campanula Canadensis, Cedronella Canadensis, Scnecio app 

 diculatus, etc. 



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Other unique plants are found in the great craters. The 

 perfect bowl of the Bandama crater of Canary, whose charred 

 sides look as if they had been scorched only yesterday, but 

 which has in reality been extinct since historic times, is the home 

 of several species ; so also is the ancient crater of Tiraxana on 

 same island. The immense crater of Palma is one of the most 

 perfect in the world. The diameter of its base measures about six 

 miles, and its walls are nearly seven thousand feet high. Its flora 

 is of remarkable interest as it is one of the richest centers of pe- 

 culiar species. The great peak of Tenerife itself is another hot- 

 bed of isolation ; twenty -one species that exist nowhere else are 

 found on it and on the great circle of the Caiiadas which sur- 

 rounds it. It is curious that several species are confined to this 

 peak region and to the great Palma crater forty-five miles away 

 (e. g., Senecio palmcnsh) — and that others not identical are closely 

 related, e. g., in each there is a peculiar but related species ot 

 Viola not found elsewhere. The old Guauche idea that the peak 

 was originally thrown out of the crater of Palma is the only eX " 

 planation of this phenomenon which we have yet heard suggeste . 



