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spots iii the Canary islands, at Madeira, and Por- 

 to Santo, offers a curious phenomenon with res- 

 pect to the migration of plants. It has never 

 been found in a wild state on the continent of 

 Africa*: the East Indies is it's real country. By 

 what means has this tree been transplanted to 

 Teneriffe, where it is no way common ? does it's 

 existence prove, that, at some very distant epocha, 

 the Guanches had connections with other nations 

 originally from Asia ? 



On leaving Orotava, a narrow and stony path- 

 way led us across a beautiful forest of chesnut 

 trees, el monte de Castannos, to a site which is 

 covered with brambles, some species of laurels, 



* Mr. Schousboe, in his Flora of Morocco (Danske Videns* 

 kabens-Selskabs Shrivter, B. v, p. 4) does not even mention it 

 among the cultivated plants, while he speaks of the cactus, 

 the agave, and the yucca. The form of the dragon-tree is 

 exhibited in several species of the genus dracoena, at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in China, and in New Zealand ; but in the 

 New World it is replaced by the form of the yucca ; for the 

 dracoena borealis of Aiton is a convallaria, of which it has 

 all the appearance. The astringent juice, known in com- 

 merce by the name of dragon's blood, is, according to the 

 inquiries we made on the spot, the produce of several Ame- 

 rican plants, which do not belong to the same genus, and of 

 which some are liannes+. At Laguna, toothpicks steeped in 

 the juice of the dragon-tree are made in the nunneries, and 

 are much extolled as highly useful for the preservation of the 

 gums. 



f A general term used for climbing plants in the French 

 West India islands. Ed. 



l2 



