60 
SCANTY VEGETATION. 
search in the higher regions, for more botanical 
treasures ; but even there he was but little rewarded 
for much exertion. The mountain chain, bordering 
the western side of the principal valley, rising frequently 
to one thousand five hundred feet, only afforded a 
dozen species on the northern declivity. Two spots, 
however, were better furnished ; that is to say, the two 
most elevated ridges situated towards the middle of the 
island. The highest of these can boast of being the 
best clothed with vegetation, and hence its name 
‘ Monte Verde.’ This rock of basalt, topping a gra- 
dually ascending table-land, rises according to barome- 
trical measurement to two thousand five hundred feet ; 
and is the only mountain on the island generally 
enveloped in clouds. Consequently its upper half is 
found to have many well watered spots, while every 
other part is burnt by drought. 
“ It is difficult to state precisely the difference 
betw’een the vegetation of the lower and the upper 
regions. But it appeared that many plants flourishing 
in the mountain, did also grow^ in the lower country, 
though now dried up. As the Tamarix was of the 
plain, so was an Euphorbia — perhaps the only one of 
the island, commonly two or three feet high, but 
sometimes a small tree, with some twenty or thirty 
leaves among the blossoms at the ends of the 
branches — characteristic of the mountains. It gave an 
agreeable verdure to the clefts, it abounded in the 
upper valleys, and reached to the very top of ‘ Monte 
