174 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 



Island of Tenerifle, on the declivities of the Peak of Teyde, 

 where they grow luxuriantly, and look like little Fir -trees 

 covered with masses of pretty flowers, of the most brilliant 

 colours. Still, the species which appear in the Northern 

 Hemisphere are considered as representatives only of the 

 Heath tribe, which has its true home at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and it is a singular fact that in the New World only 

 one out of the thcee hundred species of Heaths is to be met 

 with ; the limits of this plant in the Southern Hemisphere 

 are very definitely marked ; but within these limits the dif- 

 ferent species grow in such rich profusion, that at the Cape 

 whole tracts of land are so thickly covered with little tree- 

 like Heaths, that they are spoken of as forests. 



Another peculiar feature of vegetation there is formed 

 by the " countless species of flowers belonging to the Corn- 

 flag or Iris tribe." During the dry season those tracts of 

 land called Karroos are parched and half naked ; but on 

 the commencement of the rains, they are soon " covered 

 with a robe of the deepest green, adorned with all manner 

 of gay and sparkling colours." Here too we meet again 

 with numbers of those succulent plants we remember in the 

 Northern Sub-Tropical Zone, particularly in the Canary 

 Islands. There is one most interesting tribe of these, called 



