CHAPTER XVII 



THE AZORES 



In the autumn of 1914, after my return from a second sojourn 

 in the Azores, it was my privilege to communicate to the Kew 

 Bulletin a short general description of the native vegetation of those 

 islands as illustrated on the slopes of the mountain of Pico. Here 

 it is proposed to considerably extend that paper, using it as a frame- 

 work for the author's detailed account of his observations in the 

 group. 



It is not at all easy to obtain a general notion of the original flora 

 of these islands. Much as has been written on the Azorean plants, 

 it is difficult to procure many data concerning the relative frequency, 

 the mode of occurrence, and the associations of the native plants, 

 except from the earlier writings of Seubert, Hochstetter, Watson, 

 Drouet, and others, the later works being mainly concerned wilh 

 catalogues of the species. Yet it is on the labours of the systematists 

 that we rely for all safe progress in these matters. The monographs 

 of Seubert in 1844, of Watson in 1870, and of Trelease in 1897, form 

 landmarks in the history of the investigation of the flora. But 

 many have laboured to supply the materials, and here we may 

 mention Guthnick, the Hochstetter s (father and son), Godman, 

 Hunt, C. S. Brown, Sampaio, Carreiro, Machado, and Chaves. 



The Author's Sojourns in the Group. — During his two visits 

 to the Azores, from the middle of February to the end of April 1913, 

 and from the middle of June to the middle of August 1914, the author 

 was principally engaged in investigating the altitudinal ranges of 

 the plants. After familiarising himself with the flora during a stay 

 of about three weeks on San Miguel, when he ascended the principal 

 mountains of the island and enjoyed the privilege, so courteously 

 extended to him by the officials of the Municipal Museum at Ponta 

 Delgada, of consulting the herbarium, he visited Pico and remained 

 on its great mountain from the second week of March to the second 

 week of April 1913. During his second sojourn in the group in 1914 

 he stayed on the island of Pico from the end of June to the second 

 week of August, a period of six weeks, of which the first four were 

 passed on the mountain, and the last two in the district of Caes-o- 

 Pico and Praynha do Norte, lying off its slopes. The only other 

 island examined botanically was Terceira ; but this visit was confined 

 to a single ascent of Santa Barbara, its principal summit. His 

 intention to spend some time on San Jorge, the only one of the larger 



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