INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXXI 



magnificent and vast, but now rapidly disappearing, were composed 

 mainly of the Laurinece, the bright leaves of which distilled from the 

 surrounding atmosphere an unfailing supply of water which, in its 

 turn, kept up a luxuriant under-verdure, nourishing an entire fauna 

 of its own*. And so, in the latter Group, the ancient Finals (or 

 pine-woods), as well as the upland districts occupied by the various 

 species of Broom (there known as the " Retamas "), and those which 

 are clothed with the shrubby Cisti, or arborescent Heaths, have each 

 of them their special quota to add to the general list ; yet it still 

 remains for me to allude to another, and totally different, race of 

 plants, which play a part so significant amongst the aboriginal vege- 

 tation as to invest themselves with an interest second only to that 

 which surrounds the great family of the laurels. 



The plants to which I refer are the Euphorbias a monstrous 

 assemblage of wonderful, and even fantastic, forms, which are widely 

 distributed over this scattered archipelago, and which in the Canarian 

 Group have acquired a marvellous ascendency. In the latter indeed 

 there are whole tracts (especially towards the south of Grand Canary) 

 absolutely clothed with them ; and some will occasionally attain a 

 size so gigantic as to be almost comparable with dwarf gnarled oaks ; 

 whilst the prickly stalks of the quaint, C'ac^s-like E. canariensis 

 are, at the same time, so abundant on the rocky declivities of Tene- 

 rifFe, and the islands to the westward of it, as to constitute a really 

 conspicuous feature in the landscape. It is on the dry sunny slopes 

 of rather low and intermediate altitudes that the various Euphorbias 

 seem more particularly to flourish ; yet a few of them (as, for in- 

 stance, the noble E. mellifera of Madeira) ascend to a high elevation, 

 and thrive in comparatively damp and cloudy regions at four or five 



* I once had a very pretty illustration of the almost magical effect produced 

 even by a single tree, in helping to keep up a supply of water through this curious 

 but natural process. Whilst collecting at a high altitude on the mountains of 

 Madeira (in the upland region of the Fanal), a light-drawn cloud, so thin and 

 vapoury as to be barely traceable, and quite insufficient to obscure the full glare 

 of the sun, suddenly made its appearance. Being an ordinary occurrence I took 

 no notice of it, but passed on to an old laurel which stood out, with its extended 

 arms, isolated and vast, on the green park-like lawn, and commenced my re- 

 searches beneath its shade. In a few minutes I found myself gradually becoming 

 wet, and in a very few more the large drops began to distil upon me, one by one, 

 in a most uncomfortable manner ; so that I had to move a few yards away, into 

 the broad sunshine, to dry myself. If one tree can be made the instrument for 

 effecting so much, even in the merest haze, what must be the result, during the 

 constant alternations of cloud and sunshine, when entire mountain-sides are 

 thickly covered with them ? Yet the improvident inhabitants clear away their 

 noble forests, ruthlessly and without hinderance ; and ultimately wonder that 

 the streams have gradually diminished, and that the islands themselves, once a 

 jungle of luxuriance, are being slowly reduced to mere heaps of dust and scoria?. 



