26 DATE PALMS. 



lichen is of a gray colour, and those plants which 

 are of the darkest hue, long and strong, are 

 considered the best ; it grows to a great length, 

 but is rarely obtained so, as the natives gather 

 it before it comes to any size, on account of its 

 high value. 



The quantity collected in one year, among 

 the whole of this group of islands, was 

 537,600 lbs. ; but sometimes a larger quantity 

 is obtained, when, not having much work upon 

 the plantations, the negroes can be employed 

 for the purpose.* It is found on the steep rocks in 

 the interior of the islands, and growing in the 

 crevices ; the finest orchilla is collected at the 

 island of St. Antonio, where it grows in some 

 places so inaccessible as to be only procured 

 by lowering the gatherer down the cliffs by 

 ropes. This lichen is exported only to Lisbon, 

 there being an order from the Portuguese go- 

 vernment to that effect, but quantities were often 

 smuggled direct to some foreign port.f 



* At the time of our arrival a Portuguese brig was lying 

 in the bay, having a cargo of this weed on board, which was 

 estimated at a low calculation to be worth 30,000/. 



■f " The dyer's lichen was first exported from the islands 

 of the Archipelago to Venice, Genoa, France, and England, 

 for the use of the dyers. Towards the commencement of 

 the last century it was discovered in the Canary Islands, and 



