zone of the deciduous woods to scale the rocky barrier of the Alps. Here suddenly appear quite different plants; with the great woods of trees, the coriaceous shining leaves of which last through the mild winter, and round the mighty stems of which climb the vine and flame-colored Bignonias, unite the smaller bushes of myrtle, arbutus, and pistachio. Here and there the dwarf-palm is met with; labiate plants and crucifers, and fair-flowered rock-roses replace in summer the spring flora of scented hyacinth and narcissus; but rarely, even in the most favored spots, is the eye dazzled by the brilliancy of evergreen leaves, or the glaring play of color of the naked, jagged mountain chains, gladdened by the mild radiance of verdant meadows. In recompense, mankind has, in this zone of evergreen woods, seized upon the fruit of the Hesperides. It is “the land where the Citrons blow, Through the dark-green leaves the gold Oranges glow.” But onward, ever onward, strives the insatiable son of Iapetus; no legend of African deserts, no death-news of the many adventurous travelers who have gone forth to seek the source of the Niger, frighten him back. On the west coast of Africa, in the Canary Isles, is, indeed, no longer found the gigantic dog, from which, as Pliny told, the islands derived their name, but Flora gives for booty richest treasures which she, by aid of the tropical sun, has succeeded in extracting from the soil, moistened by the vapors of the ocean. Round sycamores twine mighty cissus stems; capers and bauhinias interlace in the thickets of balsamic shrubs. The slender date-palm soars aloft, and the baobab grows up into gigantic masses of wood. The wondrous cactus-like forms of the leafless spurges, distinguished by their poisonous or pleasant-flavored, sweet milk, as the case may be, betray a peculiar formative power in Nature; and the dragon-tree in the garden of Orotava,[3] in Teneriffe, a gigantic arborescent lily-plant, recounts to the musing listener the traditions of thousands of years.