Wo C A N A R Y I S L A N D S . 



pendicular height. The two lower regions occupy abont 

 3,000 feet each ; and the upper one, the remaining portion 

 of the mountain. 



The first zone commences at the sea-shore, and com- 

 prises nearly all the inhabited partsof the island, and those 

 which are under careful cultivation. It contains nearly 

 all the culinary vegetables and fruits of the temperate and 

 the torrid zones, besides a great number of indigenous 

 plants. In this region, we meet with eight species of 

 arborescent euphorbise, two species of mesembryanthema, 

 two of cacali[E, one of the dracoena, and other plants with 

 naked trunks, succulent leaves, and bluish-green fruit, 

 which exhibit features of African vegetation. It is in this 

 zone, too, that we find the date-tree, the banana, the sugar- 

 cane, the orange, the cocoa, and the bread-fruit, all dis- 

 tinct inhabitants that adorn and increase the majesty of 

 the landscape in regions near the equator. 



The second zone commences at an elevation of about 

 3,000 feet above the ocean, and includes nearly all the 

 sylvan tracts that the island affords. This region, con- 

 stantly irrigated by clouds and springs, presents a scene of 

 perpetual verdure. Lofty forests of the chesnut, the pine, 

 the laurel, and the oak, crown the hills, intermingled with 

 the visnea, the olea, the myrica, the sideroxylon, the 

 arbutus, the juniperus, and a vast quantity of ferns. It is 

 in this region that we find the golden campanula, the 

 chrysanthema, the hyperica, and a number of aromatic 

 plants. 



The third and last zone commences at the height of 

 about 6,000 feet above the level of the ocean, and includes 

 the whole of Las Canadas, and the vast pyramid of the 

 Peak. It is the most sterile part of the island, where heaps 

 of pumice-stones, obsidian, and tracts of lava, impede the 

 growth of vegetation. Its principal plants are those ver- 

 dant islets of Alpine broom, ( Spartium nuhigenum. Lin.) 

 a few species of herbaceous plants, and the beautiful Viola 

 cheiranthifolia which flourishes amid regions of eternal 

 snows and barren grandeur. Towards the summit of the 

 Peak, the urceolaria and other cryptogamous plants appear, 

 and even some are found within the verse of the crater. 



