TENERIFFE. 3 



of the great basin, whose waters are received by 

 the Mediterranean : a few species of plants, of 

 luxuriant growth, give it, however, the character- 

 istic of the torrid zone. The date-tree, the plan- 

 tain, the American aloe, the common torch thistle, 

 and, according to Humboldt, also the dragon-tree, 

 are strangers in this soil, as they are in Spain and 

 Sicily. But the gigantic columnar Euphorbia 

 CanariensiSy with several other juicy plants, the 

 Cacalia Kleinia, Euphorbia balsamiferay &c. belong 

 to the rocks which they occupy, and fairly an- 

 nounce the vegetation of Africa. 



You ask now in vain, in the garden of the Mar- 

 quis de Nava, at Laguna, for the bread-fruit tree, 

 (^Artocarpus incisa), planted there by Broussonet 

 himself, and which was still there when Humboldt 

 visited the island. 



Dr. Eschscholtz found, among the insects which 

 we collected, only well-known European spe- 

 cies. Destructive swarms of locusts (Gri/Ilus ta- 

 taricus?) sometimes fly from the continent and 

 ravage these islands. We were told that, in 1811, 

 the neighbourhood of Laguna was infested by them, 

 and we ourselves had seen at sea, two or three de- 

 grees north of Teneriffe, and four or five degrees 

 west of the continent, the remains of such a swarm 

 swimming round our ship. In the sequel, one of 

 these animals flew on board our vessel, between 

 Teneriffe and Can aria. 



The people in general appeared to us extremely 

 B 2 



