AND PORTO SANTO. 117 



peasantry gather it wild, without considering its age or size, and 

 dye their petticoats and cloaks with it. The turmeric (curcuma 

 louga) grows luxuriantly. I found two solitary plants of the weld 

 (reseda luteola), near Camera de Lobos. A decoction of the 

 vinhatico berry produced a tolerable brown dye, for wooUens only, 

 l)ut it yielded no precipitate. Would not the berries of the 

 fuchsia coccinea, which is so abundant here, produce a fine dye ? 

 I am too late to procure any. The salsola grows more abundantly 

 on the Desertas than in Madeira, and is an article of commerce. 



I have been somewhat puzzled with the laurels (wanting almost 

 entirely on the continent of Africa), which are so interesting from 

 their uses, their beauty, and the height at which they grow, that 

 I was very desirous of gaining exact information respecting them ; 

 but I have scarcely had one perfect flower. The Uiurus feet ens, so 

 distinguished by its little tuft of hairs at the angle of the nerves, 

 could not be mistaken. The vinhatico, the wood of which is used 

 as mahogajiy, and is not unlike it in appearance, is one of the most 

 valuable productions of the island; it is the laurus indica. The til 

 has been confounded with the /. fastens, from the strong disagree- 

 able smell of its wood when first cut ; it is also valuable for its 

 timber, which is extremely hard and tough, and used for rafters : 

 it is mentioned by Baron de Humboldt under the name of laurus 

 til, but in looking over the last edition of Persoon's Enchiridium, 

 I find that my description of the til exactly answers to that of the 

 /. cupularis, referred to the ]Mauritius''. The only mention of a 



* I suspect that the Portuguese call both the laurits f ceteris and the laurus cupularis, 

 til ; for they say that there are two kinds of til, and that both are equally foetid. 

 When freshly cut or planed, it is impossible to support the odour, which is of the 

 most disagreeable nature. It will not bear e.xposure to weather. It is of a deep 

 brown colour, resembling walnut, but much prettier. A square prism of this wood, 

 twenty-four inches long and one on each side, leaving a distance of twenty-two 

 inches between the props of support, and suspending the weight from the centre, bore 

 446 pounds at the moment of its breaking ; the prism weighed thirteen ounces one 



