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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Wherever These
Lavas Are Scorified, And Where They Have A Shining Surface, As In
The Basaltic Mounds To The North Of Lancerota, The Development Of
Vegetation Is Extremely Slow, And Many Ages May Pass Away Before
Shrubs Can Take Root.
It is only when lavas are covered with tufa
and ashes, that the volcanic islands, losing that appearance of
nudity which marks their origin, bedeck themselves in rich and
brilliant vegetation.
In its present state, the island of Teneriffe, the Chinerfe* (* Of
Chinerfe the Europeans have formed, by corruption, Tchineriffe and
Teneriffe.) of the Guanches, exhibits five zones of plants, which
we may distinguish by the names - region of vines, region of
laurels, region of pines, region of the retama, and region of
grasses. These zones are ranged in stages, one above another, and
occupy, on the steep declivity of the Peak, a perpendicular height
of 1750 toises; while fifteen degrees farther north, on the
Pyrenees, snow descends to thirteen or fourteen hundred toises of
absolute elevation. If the plants of Teneriffe do not reach the
summit of the volcano, it is not because the perpetual snow and the
cold of the surrounding atmosphere mark limits which they cannot
pass; it is the scorified lava of the Malpays, the powdered and
barren pumice-stone of the Piton, which impede the migration of
plants towards the brink of the crater.
The first zone, that of the vines, extends from the sea-shore to
two or three hundred toises of height; it is that which is most
inhabited, and the only part carefully cultivated.
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