56 
VAIXET or TACOROJfTE. 
provided it be of sliorfc duration. I have seen the hanana 
cultivated in the island of Cuba, in places where the thermo- 
meter descends to seven centesimal degrees, and sometimes 
very near freezing point. In Italy and Spain the orange 
and date-trees do not perish, though the cold during the 
night may be two degrees below freezing point. In general 
it is remarked by cultivators, that the trees which grow in a 
fertile soil are loss delicate, and consequently less affected by 
great changes in the temperature, than those which grow in 
land that affords but little nutriment.* 
In order to pass from the town of Laguna to the port of 
Orotava and the western coast of Teneriffc, we cross at first 
a hilly region covered with black and argillaceous earth, in 
which are found some smal 1 crystals of pyroxene. The waters 
most probably detach these crystals from the neighbouring 
rocks, as at Frascati, near Rome. Unfortunately, strata of 
ferruginous earth conceal the soil from the researches of the 
geologist. It is only in some ravines, that wo find columnar 
basalts, somewhat carved, and above them very recent 
breccia, resembling volcanic tufa. The breccia contain 
fragments of the same basalts which they cover ; and it is 
asserted that marine petrifactions are observed in them. 
The same phenomenon occurs in the Vlccntm, near Monte- 
ehio Maggiore. 
The valley of Taeoronte is the entrance into that charming 
country, of which travellers of every nation have spoken with 
rapturous enthusiasm. Under the torrid zone I found sites 
where nature is more majestic, and richer in the display of 
organic forms ; but after having traversed the banks of the 
Orinoco, the Cordilleras of Peru, and the most beautiful 
valleys of Mexico, I own that I have never beheld a prospect 
more varied, more attractive, more harmonious in the distri- 
bution of the masses of verdure and of rocks, than the 
western coast of Teneriil'e. 
* The mulberries, cultivated in the thin am! sandy soils of countries 
bordering on the Baltic Sea, are examples of this feebleness of organiza- 
tion. The late frosts do more injury to them, than to the mulberries of 
Piedmont. Ill Italy a cold of 5° below freezing point does not destroy 
robust orange trees. According to M. Galesio, these trees, less tender 
than the lemon and bergamot orange trees, freeze only at ten centesimal 
degrees below freezing point. 
