434 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



the Canarian flora (Engler's Jdhrbucher, bd. VI., 1885) apparently 

 implies that it is indigenous in the Portuguese mountains. Prof. 

 Henriques, who tells me that possibly we might to-day consider it 

 as almost indigenous in the mountains of Algarve, the southern pro- 

 vince of Portugal, gave me Brotero's reference to it in the Flora 

 lusitanica : " Hab. quasi spontanea in pineto regione circa Leiria, 

 Cintra, etc., ex insula Fayal et aliis Azoricis advecta." B. A. Gomes 

 and Da S. Beirao in their catalogue of the plants in the botanic 

 garden of the medical school of Lisbon (1852) speak of Myrica faya 

 as the " Faya of the Isles " and under its habitat name Madeira, 

 the Azores, and Algarve in Portugal. Here 44 Faya " is also given 

 as the name of two European species of Poplar, Populus alba, 

 the 44 Faya branca " or 44 White Poplar," and P. tremula (nigra, 

 H.B.G.), the 44 Faya preta " or 44 Black Poplar." They also speak 

 of 44 Samoco " as another Portuguese name of Myrica faya, a name 

 also supplied to me by Prof. Henriques; but I can find nothing 

 about its significance. 



Myrsine africana, L. — The 44 Tamujo," or 44 Tamucho," or "Tamuzo" 

 of the Azoreans, the final vowel being dropped in the vernacular. 

 The early Portuguese colonists evidently gave it the name of plants 

 of similar appearance in their home-land. In Portuguese and Spanish 

 dictionaries the name is applied to Rhamnus lycioides, but Prof. 

 Henriques tells me that in Portugal it is given to Securinega buxifolia. 

 The earlier botanists regarded the plant as a species of Buxus, and 

 its appearance might suggest it. 



Watson and Trelease refer it to the variety retusa of De Candolle ; 

 but this variety is not differentiated by Mez in his work on the 

 Myrsinaceo? (Pflanzenreich, 1902). It flowers in April and May 

 (Seubert). Evidently the shrub bears the ripening fruit through 

 the winter. In the Furnas Valley at the end of February I found 

 it in nearly mature fruit. Druce, who visited this locality in March, 

 speaks of the plant's copious berries covered with bloom (Journ. 

 Bot., Jan. 1911). On Pico in the latter half of March it was fre- 

 quently observed by me in mature fruit. At the end of June and 

 the beginning of July it carried only immature green fruit. These 

 shrubs begin to appear on Pico about 600 or 700 feet above the sea. 

 Though abundant in the Faya zone, that is, below 2000 or 2500 feet, 

 it extends in quantity considerably higher, as far, in fact, as the upper 

 woods go, namely, to 4000 or 4500 feet; and in a dwarfed form it 

 ascends in places the steep lava slopes of the central cone, the extreme 

 altitude noted being 5200 feet. Hochstetter's observations gave 

 similar results, since he places it in the lower and upper woods ranging 

 between 1500 and 4500 feet. It grows in a stunted form on the 

 summits of the principal mountains of San Miguel, the highest of 

 which rises to nearly 3600 feet. 



Osmunda regalis, L. — Recorded in Trelease' s pages from Corvo, 

 Flores, Fayal, Terceira, and San Miguel. I found it characteristic 

 of Pico ; but although seemingly Seubert did not include this island 

 in his list of localities, this fern is named (p. 6) amongst the plants 

 characterising the lower mountain woods of Pico. It was in these 

 woods at altitudes ranging from 1200 to 2500 feet that this fern 



