398 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



island of Fayal. At present a regular trade in Pico firewood exists 

 between Horta and the towns and villages on the Pico side of the 

 straits. There is but little attempt in the way of re-foresting the 

 island of Fayal. Writing of a time so long ago as 1839 the Bullars 

 remarked that " to such an extent has this short-sighted destruction 

 been carried in Fayal that, with ample room for plantations, the 

 principal supply of fuel is derived from Pico " (II., 8). 



Firewood is the eternal question with these people ; but it is only 

 used for cooking their food, the foliage serving as fodder, the leafy 

 branches as litter in their stables, and the branches of the Ling 

 (Calluna vulgaris) and the Tree-Heath {Erica azorica) as brushwood. 

 The procuring of these materials seems to be one of the principal 

 occupations of their lives. On the lower slopes of the great mountain 

 of Pico one meets all through the year a constant string of men, 

 women, and bullock-drawn carts carrying loads of Erica azorica, 

 Calluna vulgaris, Myrica faya, Laurus canariensis, Ilex perado, etc., 

 the foliage of the last-named plant being cut in quantity for mule 

 fodder. Withal, there is no attempt at renovation of the sources 

 of supply. The land is allowed to remain undisturbed for several 

 years, and the owner makes considerable profit by selling it with 

 the wood standing, receiving it back when the wood is all felled. 

 Faya trees attain a diameter of five or six inches in from eight to 

 ten years, so that the growth of one of the most abundant and most 

 useful of the trees can scarcely be said to be very rapid. 



The lower wooded slopes of the mountain of Pico reaching to the 

 government lands, 3000 to 4000 feet above the sea, are all private 

 property. Low walls of loose lava blocks separate the different 

 Ownerships, the poor man having a small patch and the rich man 

 a large one. These properties are handed down from parents to 

 children, and the rights are rigidly observed. They may remain 

 in the same family for generations. A bequest of a small patch of 

 woodland for some poor widow is as much a necessity of her existence 

 as a dwelling, and willing hands help her to bring the faggots down 

 the mountain side, if she is old and feeble. A large amount of the 

 carrying is done by the women, whilst the men do the felling. Coal 

 at my time was only used by some of the better-class Picoese. The 

 poorer people of the larger coast towns, like Magdalena, usually 

 purchased their wood off the land from the owner, felled it themselves 

 and carried it home, about six dollars' worth lasting them a year. 



The Affinities of the Native Flora of the Azores. — The 

 characteristic flowering plants of the woods, of the moors, of the 

 ponds and lakes, and of the coast, exhibit in a progressive scale a 

 gradually extending connection with the outer world. This is well 

 brought out in the tables following these remarks. Whilst the shrubs 

 and trees of the woods are for the most part non-European, and 

 either exist in the other two Macaronesian groups (the Canaries 

 and Madeira) or are represented there by closely related species, 

 the plants of the upland moors and of the ponds and lakes are nearly 

 all European species, that rarely occur either in the Canaries or in 

 Madeira. The shore plants on their part are fairly well distributed, 

 both in Europe and in the other two groups; and nearly half of 

 them are also North American. The North American connections 



