1863.] AZOREAN FLORA. 263 



natural fertility of the soil. Hence the vegetation is both scanty 

 in number of kinds and generally stunted. 



This is the case especially with trees ; and the devastation 

 caused by the violence of the terrific storms with which these 

 islands are visited is irreparable. Natural shelter is scarcely pro- 

 curable, and artificial protection or high stone walls are erected, 

 which are of course too expensive to be adopted except for the 

 preservation of orange-trees — objects of commercial importance. 



The Flora is rather meagre when compared with the extent 

 of the islands. 



The number of the Azorean plants of all kinds, as localized 

 and described (see 'Flora Azorica,^ by Hochstetter, father and son, 

 edited by M. Seubert, Ph.D., etc. : Bonn, 1844), is 400. 50 are 

 peculiar to the Azores ; 316 are European; 23 are Madeira and 

 Canary plants ; 5 are African, and 6 American. 



Thebotany and geology of the Azorean islands were investigated 

 by the celebrated Chr. Fr. Hochstetter and his son, who were ac- 

 companied by Rud. Gygax, a Swiss mineralogist, in 1838 ; and 

 the result of their labours was published at Bonn, as above stated. 



These islands, for they constitute a numerous group, are almost 

 equally distant from the two older continents of Europe and 

 Africa and rather further from America; they are included 

 between the 37th and 40th parallels of north latitude, and 

 between 25 and 31 degrees west from Greenwich. They are 550 

 miles distant from the Madeiras and 740 from the Canary Islands. 



Several English works on these islands had been published 

 prior to the visit of the previously named savants, viz. by Fr. 

 Masson (see Phil. Trans, vol. Ixiii. 1778) ; by Ashe (' History of 

 the Azores,' 1813, 4to); J. Webster, Boston, 1821; Captain Boid 

 (Boyd), London, 1835 ; etc. etc. 



The origin of these islands, or of some of them, is volcanic; 

 extinct craters are still conspicuous, and on the loftiest hills 

 (mountains), 7000 feet high, smoke and vapours are still issuing. 

 In one island alone, St. Maria, there are calcareous strata^ rich 

 in fossils. In this island there are also beds of plastic clay, which 

 the natives can use in their pottery works. 



Flora Azorica. 

 As a sample or as samples of the Azorean flora, the following 

 plants are entered ; the first group are common in the British 



