Fortunate Islands 



satisfying and also yields an enormous harvest. Some 

 doubt has been cast recently on the stories which one 

 used to believe as to the amount of sago to be obtained 

 from the various sago palms. But even if they required 

 ten years to be mature, it is the actual trunk of a tree 

 which is packed with this valuable food material. 



Yet from all these fortunate islands, Canaries, Madeira, 

 Azores, Bahamas, Bermudas, and the South Sea Islands, 

 it is difficult to call to mind either a race or an individual 

 who has left any permanent impression on the world's 

 history. 



The softness of the life and the easiness of living seems 

 to enfeeble and deteriorate every race which occupies 

 them. 



But the flora of such islands is full of interest. Species 

 continue to live in them which have died out in the 

 stress of continental competition. Being clearly limited 

 and of convenient size, they often show very distinctly 

 the dependence of plants on special climates. They are 

 also interesting from the problems which depend upon 

 how they were first colonised. 



When one first visits Teneriffe one cannot help re- 

 membering the classical description of Von Humboldt, 

 and the neat limiting of its various floras according to 

 the height above the sea. 



The zone of cultivation up to 1500 feet, the laurel 

 woods from 1500 to 5000 feet, the forest of pine from 

 5000 to 8000 feet, and then the alpine plants to 9800. 

 This is so very like a blackboard diagram and, what is per- 

 haps not so often realised in these days, it is still, with cer- 

 tain modifications, quite a true picture of the vegetation. 



The lower ground has been much altered by cultiva- 

 tion and by grazing, but in the rugged barrancos one 

 may still discover magnificent Sempervivums, those odd 

 fleshy candelabra-like Euphorbias, and many other char- 



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