Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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On Several Points Of The Coast The
Country Assumes The Character Of A Tropical Landscape; And We
Perceive That The Region Of The Palms Extends Beyond The Limits Of
The Torrid Zone.
The chamaerops and the date-tree flourish in the
fertile plains of Murviedro, on the coasts of Genoa, and
In
Provence, near Antibes, between the thirty-ninth and forty-fourth
degrees of latitude; a few trees of the latter species, planted
within the walls of the city of Rome, resist even the cold of 2.5
degrees below freezing point. But if the south of Europe as yet
only partially shares the gifts lavished by nature on the zone of
palms, the island of Teneriffe, situated on the parallel of Egypt,
southern Persia, and Florida, is adorned with the greater part of
the vegetable forms which add to the majesty of the landscape in
the regions near the equator.
On reviewing the different tribes of indigenous plants, we regret
not finding trees with small pinnated leaves, and arborescent
gramina. No species of the numerous family of the sensitive-plants
has migrated as far as the archipelago of the Canary Islands, while
on both continents they have been seen in the thirty-eighth and
fortieth degrees of latitude. On a more careful examination of the
plants of the islands of Lancerota and Forteventura, which are
nearest the coast of Morocco, we may perhaps find a few mimosas
among many other plants of the African flora.
The second zone, that of the laurels, comprises the woody part of
Teneriffe: this is the region of the springs, which gush forth
amidst turf always verdant, and never parched with drought. Lofty
forests crown the hills leading to the volcano, and in them are
found four species of laurel,* (* Laurus indica, L. foetens, L.
nobilis, and L. Til. With these trees are mingled the Ardisia
excelsa, Rhamnus glandulosus, Erica arborea and E. texo.) an oak
nearly resembling the Quercus Turneri* (* Quercus canariensis,
Broussonnet.) of the mountains of Tibet, the Visnea mocanera, the
Myrica Faya of the Azores, a native olive (Olea excelsa), which is
the largest tree of this zone, two species of Sideroxylon, the
leaves of which are extremely beautiful, the Arbutus callicarpa,
and other evergreen trees of the family of myrtles. Bindweeds, and
an ivy very different from that of Europe (Hedera canariensis)
entwine the trunks of the laurels; at their feet vegetate a
numberless quantity of ferns,* (* Woodwardia radicans, Asplenium
palmatum, A. canariensis, A. latifolium, Nothalaena subcordata,
Trichomanes canariensis, T. speciosum, and Davallia canariensis.)
of which three species* (* Two Acrostichums and the Ophyoglossum
lusitanicum.) alone descend as low as the region of the vines. The
soil, covered with mosses and tender grass, is enriched with the
flowers of the Campanula aurea, the Chrysanthemum pinnatifidum, the
Mentha canariensis, and several bushy species of Hypericum.* (*
Hypericum canariense, H. floribundum, and H. glandulosum.)
Plantations of wild and grafted chestnut-trees form a broad border
round the region of the springs, which is the greenest and most
agreeable of the whole.
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