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rose in the shade, toward sunset, to 13*8°, or 

 3*7° higher than toward noon at Monte Verde. 

 This augmentation of heat could be attributed 

 only to the reverberation from the ground, and 

 the extent of the plain. We suffered much 

 from the suffocating dust of the pumice stone, 

 in which we were continually enveloped. In 

 the midst of this plain are tufts of the retama, 

 which is the spartium nubigenurn of Aiton. 

 This charming shrub, which Mr. de Martiniere* 

 wished to introduce into Languedoc, where fire- 

 wood is very scarce, grows to the height of nine 

 feet ; it is loaded with odoriferous flowers, with 

 which the goat hunters, that we met in our road, 

 had decorated their hats. The goats of the peak, 

 which are of a deep brown, are reckoned de- 

 licious food ; they browse on the spartium, and 

 have run wild in the deserts from time imme 

 morial. They have even been transported to 

 Madeira, where they are preferred to the goats 

 of Europe. 



As far as the rock of Gayta, or the entrance 

 of the extensive Llano del Retama, the peak of 

 Teneriffe is covered with beautiful vegetation : 

 nothing bears the mark of recent devastation. 

 We might have imagined ourselves scaling the 

 side of some volcano, the fire of which had been 

 extinguished as remotely as that of Monte Cavo, 



* One of the botanists who perished in the expedition of 

 La Peyrouse. 



