124 
NATURE NOTES 
steep ascent vve have ere long a wide view over the interior of 
the island. The country is highly cultivated, chiefly in small 
and (at this season) bare ploughed fields, divided by low walls of 
lava fragments, or lines of the tall reed ( Arundo Donax). Nestling 
in the broad valley below lie the tiny farm-houses of the ram- 
bling village of Los Flamingos, and beyond it are seen three of 
the grassy volcanic peaks, abruptly truncated by extinct craters, 
which are so peculiar a feature of the scenery of the Azores, while 
away to the north rise the great slopes of the central mountain 
group. But where is the luxuriance of vegetation the tourist 
vaguely expects ? The fact is, to the ignorant lover of plants, 
the flora of the Azores is a disappointment. Even when pre- 
viously instructed that it is poor in species (Watson gives 478), 
and that the great majority of these are European, or belonging 
to European genera, something more un-English in aspect is 
looked for, a hope only partially fulfilled in the sheltered valleys 
formed by the great extinct craters, e.g. As Furnas, where the 
few Madeira and Canary Island types are more prominent. On 
this road-side we may in the meantime console ourselves with 
the fact that the bramble, so very like an English one, is a 
species (or variety) peculiar to the islands, and that among the 
chinks of the lava dykes the ferns are unfamiliar. After an 
hour’s ascent the carriage stops, and leaving it, we mount the 
donkeys previously sent on to await us. A rough, steep, stony 
path now leads past a little pine-wood into a deeply-cut lane, 
which is of an almost tropical aspect. From the banks hang the 
long shoots and great shining leaves of the Canna mixed with 
Hydrangea bushes, while above tower, and sometimes overarch, 
various foreign-looking evergreens, a species of Portugal laurel 
(L aunts canariensis) and the Faya ( Myrica Faya), from which the 
island is named, being the most frequent. A little further on, 
emerging into open ground, there is a fine view over a wilder 
country, the great folds of the hills falling away in woods and 
moorland to the cultivated ground by the sea. Across the blue 
waters of the strait lies the island of Pico, so named from the 
mountain (7,600 feet), which, in ever changing beauty of light, 
shade and colouring, soars upwards, gleaming, vanishing, and 
re-appearing among the clouds around its summit. 
The path now winds along edged with heath, juniper (Juni- 
perus Oxycedrus), and the ubiquitous Hydrangea. Many plants 
introduced into the Azores have become wholly naturalised, and 
mix with the indigenous vegetation to an extent puzzling to the 
newly-arrived botanist. Such are the Hydrangea, Nile lily 
( Calla ), the Pittosporum with its heavily-scented white blossoms ; 
and in the woods, pines, Eucalyptus, cryptomerias, poplars, &c. 
The heaths here are the Erica azorica and the ling ( Calluna Erica), 
neither in flower, and through them peep the crimson bells of 
the menziesia ( Bovetta cantabriea) and a stray butterfly orchis 
( Habenana micrantha). Again we plunge into a lane, but this time 
might think ourselves in Devonshire, with its luxuriant ferns 
(Aspidium aculeatum and Athyrium F ilix-famina). But they spring 
from a carpet of selaginella ( 5 . Kraussiana), and an occasional tuft 
