Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/787

Rh Sonchus spinosus, of the volcanic regions, generally afflicted by the dodder which bears its name; Asparagus, Ephedra, etc.

As one travels from the shore to the interior, the flora slowly changes as the temperature falls. In Teneriffe there is a gradual and complete transition from subtropical to purely arctic vegetation. Valleys, fields, hills, and gorges have their own characteristic plants.

The hillside flora is an interesting one. Often the whole lower part will be covered with an ugly growth of Opuntia, the prickly pear. There are two wild species, both very abundant and greatly esteemed for the sake of the pulpy fruit, which in the drier islands, where rain sometimes does not fall for several years, serves as a substitute for water. One was formerly extensively cultivated as the host-plant of the cochineal insect, but the discovery of aniline dyes has nearly ruined this industry. Still many fields exist, and the bare-footed women are yet to be seen passing between the spiny rows, putting the insects on each plant by hand. In the wet season, after being sown with the parasite in this way, the branches are tied up in



white cloth to prevent the insects being washed off by rain, and a field so doctored is ridiculously suggestive of a regiment of bandaged feet.

These prickly things are disagreeable enough to the climber, but above them there is a most attractive region. Asphodels bloom in