146 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



of labour necessary in its preparation. Coffee also, of a 

 good quality, is raised in the island, sufficient to supply the 

 wants of the whole population. 



Some of the hills are very high (Pico Ruivo is nearly 

 5100 feet), and are covered round with Vines to a certain 

 height, above which there are great numbers of Chestnut- 

 and Pine-trees ; and, higher still, various sorts of timber- 

 trees, so thick as to form forests. There is a kind of wood 

 used in England called Madeira Mahogany; but as no 

 mahogany is really brought from thence, it was supposed by 

 Sir Joseph Banks, who visited Madeira with Captain Cook, 

 to be the wood of a Laurel- tree (Laurus Indica), which is 

 so like mahogany that it can hardly be distinguished from it. 



In the African portion of this zone, as might be expected, 

 we again meet with some of the succulent plants before 

 named, which find a congenial home in that hot climate and 

 dry soil. There is one kind with which we are familiar in 

 English gardens, called the Ice-plant (Mesembryanthemum 

 crystallinum) , with the whole surface of its leaves and stems 

 raised into minute, transparent blisters. "We are not fur- 

 nished with many particulars about this part of Africa ; and 

 where so little can be told, it might seem wiser perhaps to 

 say nothing. 



