120 Scientific Intelligence. 
A considerable number of the Madeira plants belong to genera not 
found in the vis pie continent, but in the Canaries, Azore es, or Cape 
de Verd Islands; thus indicating a botanical affinity between aan 
groups, and fe to them 
The evidence of this relationship i is very decided, from the peculiar- 
ity of the genera or species giving rise to it. Though comparatively 
few in number, their characters are so prominent and so widely differ- 
ent from the-Mediterranean plants which accompany them, that the lat- 
ter, though shel: much the greatest, seem superadded, and, as it 
were, intruders on the former. 
The Canaries ee “Médeiea. from their central position and various 
other causes, are the centre of this botanical region, called by Mr. 
than now, previous to the destruction by fire of the luxuriant forests, 
which, according. to historic evidence, clothed almost all the lower parts 
of the is jn Not oniy would such a catastrophe destroy species, but 
their place would be afterwards occupied by strong-growing importe 
weeds, which would wit the reappearance of the native plants by 
vane the so 
ith very few ssdentions, the Mediterranean are the only plants 
found in Madeira and the Canaries besides what are confined to those 
islands ; in the Azores, on the other hand, some Navtladen European’ 
species are associated with them. In the ‘Ca e de Verds, far to the 
pine sis African and W. Indian plants replace those of the Mediter- 
viz. :—Acrostichum squamost um, Sw. ciate molle, Sw. 
sRenaiaaunials, Sw. Asplenium. furcatum , Sw. Trichomanes pane 
Sw., species found no where on the wobihedt of Europe, nor in N. A rica. 
The presence of a plant en to the otherwise exclusively Ameri- 
can genus, Clethra, is striking, because indicating a further relationship 
with the Flora of the New World, but of a very different character 
from the above. 
The Helichrysa of Madeira are allied in rather a remarkable degree 
to the S. African species of that genus; a fact which reminds us that 
the Myrsine Africana, a Cape of Good Hope plant, is a native of the 
Azores, but of no intervening latitude on the West coast of Africa of 
the Atlantic Islands, or indeed any where else but Abyssinia. Though 
not a subject falling coc sow within the province of the pure bot- 
anist, it may not be amiss here to state, that the four Island-groups in 
question have been semnitied by my friend, Professor Forbes, 10. 
the remains of one continuous and extended tract of land, which 
