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bresos,* and thorns. On the north side oi the trunk are nv«> 

 large tanks or cisterns of rough stone, or rather one cistern 

 divided, each half being 20 ft. square and 16 spans in depth. 

 One of these contains water for the drinking of the inhabitants 

 and the other that which they use for their cattle, washing, and 

 such like purposes. Ever}' morning near this part of the 

 island, a cloud or mist arises from the sea, which the south and 

 easterly winds force against the fore-mentioned steep cliff; so 

 that the cloud, having no vent but by the gutter, gradually 

 ascends it, and from thence advances slowly to the extremity 

 of the valley, where it is stopped and checked by the front of 

 the rock which terminates the valley, and then rests upon the 

 thick leaves and wide-spreading branches of the tree, from whence 

 it distils in drops during the remainder of the day, until it 

 is at length exhausted, in the same manner that we see water 

 drip from the leaves of trees after a heavy shower of rain. This 

 distillation is not peculiar to- the Garse, or 7V/, for the bresos 

 [Erica arborea), which grow near it, likewise drop water; but 

 their leaves being but few and narrow the quantity is so trifling, 

 that though the natives save some of it, yet they make little or 

 no account of any but what distils from the Til, which, together 

 with the water of some fountains, and what is saved in the 

 winter season, is sufficient to serve them and their flocks. This 

 tree yields most water in those years when the Levant or easterly 

 winds have prevailed for a continuance ; for by these winds only 



the clouds or mists are drawn hither from the sea. A person 

 lives on the spot near which this tree grows, who is appointed 

 bv the Council to take care of it and its water, and is allowed a 

 house to live in, with a certain salary. He every day distributed 



to each family of the district seven pots or vessels full of water, 

 besides what he gives to the principal people of the rslankL" 



Dr. G. V. Perez has interested himself in the Hierro Rain-tree, 

 and has kindly forwarded to the Director an abridged translation 

 of an article from a Madrid paper, " Las Canarias," for 



November, 1917, entitled " Los Arboles Santos de Canarias, 

 by R. Castellanos. " Hierro had no springs, but a Holy tree 

 called Garoe, the existence of which being so marvellous has 

 been denied to many, but is now admitted to have actually 

 existed. The Rev. Andres Bernaldez, in his Chronicle of the 

 Catholic Kings, says that in the Island of Hierro there is a 

 marvel of the world ; the inhabitants drink of water sweated from 

 the leaves of a tree ; there is a tree after the manner o*f an 

 A lam ayes (Dr. Perez suggests this may have meant an Ulmus) 

 alive still, that never loses its leaves, and its fruit is alike to 

 acorns, which are bitter as gall if eaten ; they are medicinal and 

 do no harm; the height of the tree is that of 1^ lanza (a war- 

 iance); it has large branches, and takes two men to embrace the 

 trunk, which sweats miraculously drops of water into a-receptacle 

 placed at a lower level, so that not a drop of water is lost. 

 From there the inhabitants get their water to drink, there being 

 then about eighty families which got their supplies from it; the 

 leaves are like those of a laurel but a little larger; there is not 



* Erica arborea. 



