156 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. VI 



came back. A good deal of the road is like a bad stair- 

 case, with no particular banisters, and a well of 1000 

 feet with the sea at the bottom. Your heart would 

 rejoice over the great heaths. I saw one, the bole of which 

 split into nearly equal tranks ; and one of these was 

 just a metre in circumference, and had a head as big as 

 a moderate-sized ash. Gorse in full flower, up to 12 or 

 1 5 feet high. On the whole a singular absence of flower- 

 ing herbs except Cinerarias and, especially in Tenerifl"e, 

 Echium. I did not chance to see a Euphorbia in Madeira, 

 though I believe there are some. In Teneriffe they are 

 everywhere in queer shapes, and there was a tiling that 

 mimicked the commonest Euphorbia but had no milk, 

 which I will ask you about when I see you. The 

 Euphorbias were all in flower, but this thing had none. 

 But you will have had enough of my scrawl — Ever youra 

 affectionately, T. H. Huxley. 



I 



