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order of description^ we will imagine a botanist who, after alight- 

 ing on the top of the mountain, descends to the coast. Upon the- 

 enmmit, not only at the borders of the small crater bnt also on. 

 the sides of its little cone (200 ft. in height), he would observe^ 

 in the crevices of the bare lava-surfaces small stunted patches of 

 Calluna "vulgaris, Thymus SerpylhiTn^ and Menziesia folifoliay. 

 with here and there a tuft of Agrostis casfellana. Proceeding to- 

 descend the lava slopes on the south side he would very soon notice' 

 a few specimens of Poly gala vulgaris growing for protection in the- 

 patches of Ling [Calluna vulgaris). He quickly reaches the- 

 shoulder of the mountain, a more or less level stretch of lava and' 

 lapilli, 6500-7000 ft. above the sea, where the Ling and the 

 Thyme grow in dense mat-like beds, almost carpeting the surface- 

 in places, the first named, like the Thyme, only a few inches high. 

 In the middle of July the Ling shows only the evidence of the 

 last season's flowering, whilst the Thyme beds present a mass of 

 bloom. It is on this shoulder of the mountain that St. Dabeoc's- 

 Heath [Menziesia poUfolia) is most abundant and flowers 

 copiously in July. 



From the edge of the shoulder one looks down a precipitous 

 slope of lava-flows, loose stones, and ashes, where the same plants- ' 

 occur, and often in large patches. One instinctively treads on the 

 mats of Ling and Thyme, since they give a firmer foothold during- 

 the steep descent. There are few other plants, except the half-a- 

 dozen above-named, that grow on these arid slopes above 6000 ft, 



Yery rarely one comes upon some straggler from the woods- 

 below growing from seeds dropped by birds in the crevices of a 

 lava-cliff. Situated far above the ordinary upper limit of the^ 

 rain-belt, exposed to the frosts of winter and unprotected against 

 the intensity of the sun^s rays in summer, such a plant has a hardt 

 struggle to hold its own. It was under such conditions, at an. 

 altitude of 6300 ft., that the writer found, in the middle of July, 

 a few scattered individuals of the Azorean Holly [lies perado).-^ 

 Though they were scarcely over a foot high, their thick woody 

 stocks indicated that they had been established for some years. 

 They were in bloom; and it was interesting to notice how the 

 axillary flowers were protected against the scorching heat of the 

 sun's tays by the raising of the leaves which had assumed the 

 vertical position and lay with appressed faces close to the stem. 

 The expanding terminal leaf-buds were shielded by the same 

 device; but more often than not it had proved ineffectual, and the- 

 buds were blackened and dead. 



Our botanist has descended now to an altitude of about 6000 ft.- 

 Before he gets off the steep upper third of the mountain on to the^ 

 wooded and grai^sy slopes of gentler gradient below he has yet 

 to clamber down another thousand or fifteen hundred feet over 

 old lava-flows, beds of cinders, and loose stones and boulders that 

 when displaced bound for hundreds of feet down the mountain's- 

 side. But as he descends the conditions become a little more- 

 favourable for plant-growth. Por a minute or two a driving mist 

 envelops him and shuts all out from view. He has been in a 

 wisp of cloud and is approaching the upper limit of the rain-belt. 

 Should he descend on the western side he will make but few 



