271 



less quantity of ferns *, of which three species -f* 

 alone descend as low as the region of the vines. 

 The soil, covered with mosses and a tender grass, 

 is enriched with the flowers of the golden cam- 

 panula, the chrysanthemum pinnatifidum, the 

 Canary mint, and several bushy species of hy- 

 pericum f . Plantations of wild and grafted ches- 

 nut trees form a large border around the region 

 of the springs, which is the greenest and most 

 agreeable of the whole. 



The third zone begins at nine hundred toises 

 of absolute height, where the last group of ar- 

 butus, of myrica faya, and that beautiful heath 

 known to the natives under the name of texo, 

 appears. This zone, four hundred toises in 

 breadth, is entirely filled by a vast forest of pines, 

 among which mingles the juniper us cedro of 

 Broussonet. The leaves of these pines are 

 very long, stiff, and sprout sometimes by pairs, 

 but oftener by threes in one sheath. As we had 

 no opportunity of examining the fructification^ 

 we cannot say whether this species, which has 

 the appearance of the Scotch fir, is really differ- 

 ent from the eighteen species of pines, with which 



* Woodwardia radicans, asplenium palmatum, a. canaden- 

 sis, a. lati folium, notholaena subcordata, trichomanes cana-i 

 riensis, t. speciosum, and davallia canadensis. 



+ Two acrostichums and the ophyoglossura lusitanicum. 



% Hypericum canariense, h. floribundura, and h. glandu- 

 losum. 



