THE TROPICAL ZONE. 261 



ing to be omitted. "It would be delightful (he says) 

 living in this island, were it larger or more frequented; but 

 the confinement in so small a place in the middle of a vast 

 ocean (a thousand miles from any land), so remote from all 

 communication with the rest of the world, renders the 

 residence there so lonely, that it has rather the appearance 

 of living in exile than in a land of freedom." There is, as 

 we learn from Meyen, an avenue near Napoleon's residence 

 formed by trees called Conyza arborea, one of the Composite 

 family, on which a reddish variety of the Lichen called 

 Usnea larlata grows in such quantities that this hanging 

 drapery is the first thing which attracts the traveller's eye." 

 On the roadsides, he tells us, "Agaves are often planted, 

 which, when in flower, have even at a great distance a 

 beautiful effect." 



Passing from hence to Africa, we shall be able to form a 

 pretty good idea of at least a small portion of that belt of 

 it included in this zone from the interesting account given 

 by a recent traveller there,* who has explored a considerable 

 tract of the country hitherto unknown to Europeans. Our 

 previously formed expectations of what we shall meet with 

 are in some respects fulfilled, whilst in others we are often 



* Francis Galton, Esq. 



