CLIMATE OF TENERIFFE. 



39 



wine, a great variety of fruits, sugar, and other ar- 

 ticles of food ; but the lower orders are frequently- 

 obliged to have recourse to the roots of a species 

 of fern. The principal objects of commerce are 

 wine, brandy, archil (a kind of lichen used as a die), 

 and soda. 



TenerifFe has been praised for the salubrity of its 

 climate. The ground of the Canary Islands rises 

 gradually to a great height, and presents, on a small 

 scale, the temperature of every zone, from the in- 

 tense heat of Africa to the cold of the alpine re- 

 gions; so that a person may have the benefit of 

 whatever climate best suits his temperament or dis- 

 ease. A similar variety exists as to the vegetation ; 

 and no country seemed to our travellers more fitted 

 to dissipate melancholy, and restore peace to an 

 agitated mind, than TenerifFe and Madeira, where 

 the natural beauty of the situation and the salu- 

 brity of the air conspire to quiet the anxieties of 

 the spirit, and invigorate the body, while the feel- 

 ings are not harassed by the revolting sight of 

 slavery, which exists in almost all the European 

 colonies. 



In winter the climate of Laguna is excessively 

 foggy, and the inhabitants often complain of cold, 

 although snow never falls. The lowest height at 

 which it occurs annually in TenerifFe has not been 

 ascertained ; but it has been seen in a place lying 

 above Esperanza de la Laguna, close to the town 

 of that name, in the gardens of which the breadfruit- 

 tree (Artocarpus incisa), introduced by M. Broussonet, 

 has been naturalized. In connexion with this sub- 

 ject, Humboldt remarks, that in hot countries the 

 plants are so vigorous that they can bear a greater 

 degree of frost than might be expected, provided it 

 be of short duration. The banana is cultivated in 

 Cuba, in places where the thermometer sometimes 

 descends to very near the freezing-point ; and in 

 Spain and Italy, orange and date-trees do not perish, 



