Chap, ii.] EOILING SPRINGS. 3 1 



heath {Erica azflrica), and a splendid fern {Duksonia atlcita), 

 which almost forms a tree, and which has a beautiful golden 

 brown silky substance covering its young shoots, which is 

 gathered and used for stuffing cushions. Several tree ferns 

 have a similar substance developed on them. The moor looked 

 very like a Scotch moor, and stretched away far over the flat 

 hill tops. 



There are 40 flowering plants found in the Azores, which 

 grow nowhere else in the world ; Erica azorica, the heath, is 

 one of them. The rest of the plants are either South Euro- 

 pean, or belong to the Atlantic flora, a name given to a series of 

 plants which grow on the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, and 

 nowhere else. Of these Atlantic plants t,6 are found in the 

 Azores.* Examples of them are the laurel {Laiirus canariensis) 

 and the juniper {luniperus brevifolia). One little plant, a 

 Campanula (C Vida/ii), is found only on one small rock on the 

 east coast of Flores (one of the Azores), and nowhere else in 

 the world. Nearly all the shrubs and trees of the Atlantic 

 group of islands are evergreens. 



We crossed a stretch of the plateau, and suddenly looked 

 down on the other side of it into an immense deep, nearly 

 circular crater, beautifully green. Its undulating bottom was 

 dotted over with white houses amongst gardens and corn-fields, 

 and in the distance was seen a small column of steam hovering 

 over the hot springs. We drove down a steep incline for at 

 least a couple of miles, and at least reached the village of 

 Furnas. The road hence to the hot springs led across a small 

 stream fed by them, deeply stained red, and smelling strongly 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen. Thence the path went up a little 

 valley, cut out in the low ridge of very fine light whitish ashes 

 which separates the main Furnas valley from that part of it in 

 which the Furnas lake is situate. It is a beautiful tiny glen, 

 with dark evergreen foliage on its steep banks, and on the 

 swamp borders of its narrow bed were masses of the brilliant 

 green leaves of the eatable Arum {Caladiiim esciiloitum), one 

 of the staple foods of the Polynesians, their " faro.'^ The taro 

 is cultivated all over the islands, but thrives here especially in 

 the warm mineral water. 



The Furnas lake is about three miles in circumference. 

 There are two groups of boiling springs, the one at the margin 

 of the lake, the other close to the town of Furnas. 



The boiling springs near the lake are scattered over an area 

 of about 40 yards square, covered with a greyish clayey 

 deposit ; a geyser or hot-spring formation, being composed of 



* A. Grisebach, " Die Vegetation der Erde." Leipzig, 1872, 2ter Bd. 

 s. 503- 



