Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 123 of 779 - First - Home
The
Astringent Juice, Known In Commerce By The Name Of Dragon's Blood,
Is, According To The Inquiries We Made On The Spot, The Produce Of
Several American Plants, Which Do Not Belong To The Same Genus And
Of Which Some Are Lianas.
At Laguna, toothpicks steeped in the
juice of the dragon-tree are made in the nunneries, and are much
extolled as highly useful for keeping the gums in a healthy state.)
On leaving Orotava, a narrow and stony pathway led us through a
beautiful forest of chestnut trees (el monte de Castanos), to a
site covered with brambles, some species of laurels, and
arborescent heaths. The trunks of the latter grow to an
extraordinary size; and the flowers with which they are loaded form
an agreeable contrast, during a great part of the year, to the
Hypericum canariense, which is very abundant at this height. We
stopped to take in our provision of water under a solitary
fir-tree. This station is known in the country by the name of Pino
del Dornajito. Its height, according to the barometrical
measurement of M. de Borda, is 522 toises; and it commands a
magnificent prospect of the sea, and the whole of the northern part
of the island. Near Pino del Dornajito, a little on the right of
the pathway, is a copious spring of water, into which we plunged
the thermometer, which fell to 15.4 degrees. At a hundred toises
distance from this spring is another equally limpid.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 123 of 779
Words from 33287 to 33536
of 211363
