416 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



of the upper woods of Pico, which descend to about 2000 feet above 

 the sea, were originally well represented in the higher levels of Madeira 

 (probably above 3000 feet), and also on Teneriffe, at elevations 

 of 5000 to 7000 feet, where they corresponded in their vertical range 

 with the belt of Finns canariensis, the pines being unrepresented 

 either in Madeira or in the Azores (pp. 409-10). 



9. A comparison is then made of the summit plants of Pico, 

 Madeira, and Teneriffe, and it is shown that they have little in common, 

 those of Pico being derived from the moors below, these upland 

 moors with their plants being in a general sense unrepresented on 

 either Madeira or Teneriffe (p. 411). 



10. The chapter then closes with a short comparison of the histories 

 of the plant-stocking of the three Macaronesian groups. Whilst 

 with the Canaries, and to a less extent with Madeira, there were 

 early invasions of African, American, and Asiatic plants, they made 

 but little mark on the Azores. The Azorean flora appears not to 

 have shared in such revolutionary changes, and its history begins 

 with the later invasion in Upper Tertiary times from Southern Europe 

 and the Mediterranean region of plants that in their descendants 

 now give character to the Laurel woods of all three Macaronesian 

 groups. The parent stocks have since been driven from their 

 European home, and the Laurel woods of Macaronesia are all that 

 remains of a period when trees now characteristic of Asia and America 

 formed the forests of our continent (Hooker). The last invasion 

 of Macaronesia, which has extended down to recent times, is indi- 

 cated by those plants that still exist in South Europe and North 

 Africa. It is represented by the minority of the plants of the 

 woods, and particularly in the Azores by the plants of the moors 

 (pp. 411-13). 



11. In the case of the Canarian flora, which is made up of the wrecks 

 of many floras, questions quite other than those concerned with 

 existing means of dispersal are mainly raised. With the Azorean 

 flora, however, which has shared only in the later revolutionary 

 changes of the plant world in this region, the means of dispersal 

 will figure prominently in any inquiry into its history; and to this 

 subject the next chapter is largely devoted (pp. 413-14). 



