THE AZORES 



363 



which various of the species are stated to occur; but " (he continues) 

 "it is asserted here with some confidence that the stated altitudes 

 must too often have been merely rough guesses by somebody not 

 sufficiently informed about the true heights of hills and places in the 

 Isles." Seubert's data were supplied by Hochstetter and his son, 

 and were by no means guesses. As shown in my notes on the Azorean 

 plants in Chapter XIX., they conform as a rule very closely with my 

 own independent observations, the methods of obtaining the altitudes 

 being there stated. 



The results of Watson's investigations were first given in the 

 London Journal of Botany, 1843-7, and finally in 1870 in the botanical 

 section of Godman's general work. In the last case they were 

 greatly extended by a large amount of materials supplied chiefly 

 by collections made in 1844-8 by Mr. Carew Hunt, British Consul for 

 the Azores, and to a less extent by those made by Godman in 1865. It 

 may be added here that the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 

 for 1845 contains a paper on the islands of San Miguel and Santa 

 Maria by Mr. Hunt. There is, however, not much in it of botanical 

 interest. 



In 1857 there visited these islands Drouet and Morelet, two French 

 zoologists, and Hartung, a German geologist, of whom the two first 

 specially interested themselves in the botany of the group. Drouet 

 and Morelet were more or less associated in their travels, and they 

 remained in the islands from April to September. Morelet accom- 

 plished the ascent of Pico and made valuable observations on the 

 vertical distribution of the plants. Drouet attempted the same 

 ascent ; but his strength failed him, and he turned back when about 

 half-way up the mountain. Morelet published his notes in his 

 lies Azores (L'Histoire Naturelle) in 1860. Drouet was rather more 

 ambitious, since he published in 1866 a list of the plants of these 

 islands in his Catalogue de la Flore des lies Azores. But, as Watson 

 points out (p. 119), his enumeration suffers from defects that were 

 to be expected in a work written by one whose chief speciality was 

 zoological. Yet with Drouet' s book in his hands the botanist 

 visiting these islands for the first time would be well provided, and 

 the mistakes arising from lack of familiarity with synonyms and 

 " name-changes " would be more than counterbalanced by the 

 valuable notes relating to the plants. Hartung, whose work on 

 the geology of the islands (Die Azoren, Leipzig, 1860) has long been 

 the principal authority on the subject, remained in the group until 

 the end of August. He seems to have made but a short examination 

 of Pico, and, though he visited all the islands, San Miguel and Terceira 

 occupied most of his attention. His book is chiefly of interest to 

 us from the observations it contains on the ancient trunks of Juniper 

 buried in the volcanic tuffs of San Miguel. He devotes about forty 

 pages to the flora, but he depends entirely on Seubert and Watson, 

 and in his comparison of the Azorean, Madeiran, and Canarian floras 

 he relies principally on Heer. It does not appear that he made many 

 observations on the living plants. 



Excluding the Portuguese investigators, to be subsequently 

 referred to, the next person to interest himself in the vegetation of 



