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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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.
In the low
regions, at the port of Orotava, and wherever the winds have free
access, the centigrade thermometer
Stands in winter, in the months
of January and February, at noon, between fifteen and seventeen
degrees; and the greatest heats of summer do not exceed twenty-five
or twenty-six degrees. The mean temperature of the coasts of
Teneriffe appears at least to rise to twenty-one degrees (16.8
degrees Reaumur); and the climate in those parts keeps at the
medium between the climate of Naples and that of the torrid zone.
The region of the vines exhibits, among its vegetable productions,
eight kinds of arborescent Euphorbia; Mesembrianthema, which are
multiplied from the Cape of Good Hope to the Peloponnesus; the
Cacalia Kleinia, the Dracaena, and other plants, which in their
naked and tortuous trunks, in their succulent leaves, and their
tint of bluish green, exhibit distinctive marks of the vegetation
of Africa. It is in this zone that the date-tree, the plantain, the
sugar-cane, the Indian fig, the Arum Colocasia, the root of which
furnishes a nutritive fecula, the olive-tree, the fruit trees of
Europe, the vine, and corn are cultivated. Corn is reaped from the
end of March to the beginning of May: and the culture of the
bread-fruit tree of Otaheite, that of the cinnamon tree of the
Moluccas, the coffee-tree of Arabia, and the cacao-tree of America,
have been tried with success. 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.
In the third zone (beginning at nine hundred toises of absolute
height), the last groups of Arbutus, of Myrica Faya, and of that
beautiful heath known to the natives by the name of Texo, appear.
This zone, four hundred toises in breadth, is entirely filled by a
vast forest of pines, among which mingles the Juniperus cedro of
Broussonnet. The leaves of these pines are very long and stiff, and
they sprout sometimes by pairs, but oftener by threes in one
sheath. Having had no opportunity of examining the fructification,
we cannot say whether this species, which has the appearance of the
Scotch fir, is really different from the eighteen species of pines
with which we are already acquainted in Europe. M. Decandolle is of
opinion that the pine of Teneriffe is equally distinct from the
Pinus atlantica of the neighbouring mountains of Mogador, and from
the pine of Aleppo,* (* Pinus halepensis. M. Decandolle observes,
that this species, which is not found in Portugal, but grows on the
Mediterranean shores of France, Spain, and Italy, in Asia Minor,
and in Barbary, would be better named Pinus mediterranea. It
composes the principal part of the pine-forests of the south-east
of France, where Gouan and Gerard have confounded it with the Pinus
sylvestris. It comprehends the Pinus halepensis, Mill., Lamb., and
Desfont., and the Pinus maritima, Lamb.) which belongs to the basin
of the Mediterranean, and does not appear to have passed the
Pillars of Hercules.
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