THE AZORES 



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III. Upper mountain woods, 2500 to 4500 feet. 



IV. Region of bushes, 4500 to 5200 feet. 



V. Highest zone, above 5200 feet, mostly lava, etc. 



Morelet, in his work on the natural history of the Azores (1860), 

 adopts three zones of vegetation for the islands generally, namely :— 



I. The zone of cultivation to 500 metres (1640 feet). 



II. The middle zone, or the zone of woods, extending up to 1500 

 metres (4920 feet), and corresponding in the laurels and other ever- 

 green trees and shrubs to the laurel-belt of the Canary Islands. 



III. The superior zone, 1500 metres to the summit. Here the trees 

 and shrubs become less vigorous and give place to the pastures and 

 the heaths. Only represented on Pico. 



This is a good arrangement, though it is an error to place the 

 pastures in the third zone, the upland moors, to which he evidently 

 refers, belonging to his second zone. 



The Zones of Vegetation on the Mountain of Pico as De- 

 termined by the Author. — We now come to the zones adopted 

 by the writer. As regards their limits there is a very close similarity 

 with those framed by Seubert from the notes of the Hochstetters 

 and given in his Flora Azorica. They were determined under the 

 belief that the present writer was the first to make this inquiry, and 

 their close correspondence with those adopted by Seubert enables 

 him to tread on firm ground in this matter. Before the occupation 

 of the islands the lower woods must have usually extended to the 

 coast, as they do now in places. Since it is with the native flora 

 and the original condition of the island that we are here concerned, 

 the region of cultivation is omitted and the belt of the upland moors 

 has been added. The list of plants, below given as most character- 

 istic of each zone, include all those named for the same zone by 

 Seubert and Hochstetter, with the addition of others. 



I. The Lower Woods or the Faya zone, extending from the coast 

 to between 2000 and 2500 feet above the sea. The most abundant trees 

 are Myricafaya. Erica azorica, and Laurus canariensis (Per sea azorica). 

 Next in order of frequency come Ilex perado, Rhamnus latifolius, 

 Persea indica, and Picconia excelsa, the last two being now rare. 

 Taxus baccata, at present almost extinct, found its home in the higher 

 levels of this zone. The most characteristic shrubs in their order 

 of frequency would be Myrsine africana, Vaccinium cylindraceum, 

 Hypericum foliosum, and Viburnum tinus. Hedera canariensis and 

 a species of Smilax represent the climbers, and Rubus fruticosus 

 occurs in the undergrowth. Osmunda regalis is the most conspicuous 

 of the ferns. Doubtless in the original forests this zone was divided 

 into two sub-zones by the distribution of the two laurels, Laurus 

 canariensis (Persea azorica) characterising the upper half and Persea 

 indica the lower half. 



II. The Upper Woods or the Juniper zone, between 2000 and 4500 

 feet for the woods proper and from 4500 to 5500 feet for the scrub. 

 There is often a neutral area between 2000 and 3000 feet, where 



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