Christen Smith’s diary from the Canary Islands and his importance for the Canarian botany
Per Sunding
In the year 1815 the Norwegian botanist Christen Smith visited the Canary Islands for a period of five and a half month. I have used a different word for this presentation, as the socalled manuscript has the title dagbok, that means diary. The title of the present account is – in a way – two-divided, since the two parts indicated should be presented independently. I will first deal with his exhaustive diary of the journey, then try to show what his visit came to mean for the exploration of the flora and vegetation of the islands.
Smith was born in 1785 in the town of Drammen near Oslo. At that time, Norway was in union with Denmark, and one therefore often erroneously can see Christen Smith stated to have been Danish.
Christen Smith got his education at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he first studied medicin and became a hospital physician in that town. But at the same time he had been and was greatly inspired by natural history and in special by the botanical science. (Already before his studies he had been inspired by eager amateur botanist among his neighbours at home in Norway.)
The Norwegian botanist Martin Vahl, Professor in Botany in Copenhagen, who had been a student under Carl von Linné, inspired and recommended his students to make attempts to explore the flora of southern latitudes. Vahl had himself worked as a botanist in Spain, and surely was one of the reasons why Smith’s journey to the Canary Islands found place!
The successor of Martin Vahl in the Copenhagen professorship, Jens Wilkens Hornemann, likewise was an inspirator and besides became a good friend of Smith.
In 1814 Smith was appointed Professor in ”Botany and Land Economy” at the new university in Oslo (then: Christiania). Short time before that, at the death of his father, Smith inherited an amount of money which made him economically independent and made him able to perform a botanical voyage abroad, with the intentions to study nature in other parts of the world and to meet foreign and famous scientists. His first destination during this voyage was to be England. During the stay in England in 1814 he met, mong several other British and foreign scientists, the ten years older German geologist Leopold von Buch. The two naturalists shared many interests and desided to make a joint expedition to the Canary Islands, and in April 1815 sailed out in the ship ”William and Mary” from Portmouth in England. After a two weeks stay in Madeira, they reached Tenerife on the 5th of May and anchored in Puerto Orotava (or Puerto de la Cruz). They had their residence in Orotava for more than a month, before they moved on to stay in La Laguna and Santa Cruz; from all places having long and fatiguing excursions all over the island.
During their stay in the Canaries, Smith and von Buch did not only study botany and geology of the islands, but all aspects of natural sciences, - examining altitudes of mountains, temperatures in springs, and so on, - in that respect acting as most naturalists at that time did. But the flora was clearly Smith’s main objective. Whereas the Nordic flora possesses few, if any, endemic plants, the rich flora and the high percentage of endemism in the Canaries and Madeira quite clear did fascinate him very much! Leopold von Buch later told about Smith, that ”soon he was astonished about the many curious forms of succulents, soon he run like a wind across the mountain ridges, to explore the ”forests” of Arundo, and soon he run – full of ecstasy – from flower to flower”!
After only two weeks inTenerife , they made a two days excursion to the top of Teyde, in company with a Mr. Shellow. On two mules were loaded enough food and equipment, so that - according to what Smith writes - it seemed to be enough for two weeks! Leopold von Buch in 1825 in his Physicalische Beschreibung der Canarischen Inseln tells that the pine forests on the north side of Tenerife at that time were almost completely destroyed by man and replaced by Erica. But in the remants of the pine forests on the way to Teyde, Smith became aware that the pine species was an, until then, undescribed species, and Smith named it Pinus canariensis, - perhaps the best known of the Canarian plant species which he described as new to science. Already von Alexander von Humboldt had, however, on basis of what he had heard from the Swiss botanist Octoberin Pyramus de Candolle, stated that the pine maybe was an undescribed species, different from any pine species in the Mediterranean or continental North Africa.
From the Cañadas area Smith enthusiastically writes about ”the curious retama which at a distance appeared like a lilac”, or una lila - ”with stiff branches without leaves, already covered by sweet smelling flowers being visited by bumblebees collecting from the flowers a honey that is much awarded in the cities”
From the way to the top of the Pico they registered Viola cheiranthifolia. And Smith tells that they all returned from the Teyde excursion to Orotava in triumph with branches of retama in their hats, in the same way as von mboldt told that the goat shepherds ofTenerife used to do!
An excursion through the Cañadas to the south ofTenerife – in fact they had their night stay here in Adeje! – gave them the impression that they had come to the real Africa , both from the hot climate and the character of the vegetation and everything. Among the things Smith writes about from this area is a plant that he had of course seen several times before, but not so impressing as there in the south: the cardon, Euphorbia canariensis. And he described it as ”unusual high and dominating, with the top of the branches covered by fruits like wigs”. They, however, got a better impression of fertility and luxuriant vegetation the next day, when they visited the Barranco del Infierno just behind the town of Adeje
Talking about succulents: From the lava fields in Garachico he described a Sempervivum species for which he, in his notes, proposed the name Sempervivum barbatum. Professor Hornemann inCopenhagen
Walking from Garachico along the coast towards San Juan de la Rambla they, by the way, found the fruits of Canarina canariensis being very tastefull!
The roofs in La Laguna were covered by a succulent plant, and Leopold von Buch compared this sight with that of the ”hanging gardens” ofBabylon
Among several other new succulents, he also gave name to Sempervivum aureum, later known as Greenovia aurea, and to Sempervivum punctatum, which we today better know as Aichryson punctatum. From the La Laguna area he also described Silene lagunensis. Even the common Macaronesian shrub Salix canariensis has for ever its name fixed to Christen Smith’s name.
From their starting point in La Laguna Smith and von Buch had several excursions in the Anaga peninsula and write enthusiasticly about the rich and luxuriant forest vegetation in the Monte de las Mercedes. And the varying character of the landscape at Taganana made Smith express as his opinion that nowhere on the island was it possible to see so much ofTenerife in one place as just there
FromSanta Cruz in Tenerife , they went by a vessel to Gran Canaria, where Smith - in addition to measuring the altitude of Pozo de las Nieves, the highest point in Gran Canaria, - described several plants not earlier known to science, for instance Hypericum coadunatum and the tiny Satureja (Micromeria) lanata. On the way to the Pozo, in cliffs at Roque de Saucillo, near Valsequillo, he found and described the beautiful and tiny succulent Sempervivum caespitosum, endemic to Gran Canaria, later, however, shown to be conspecific to Sempervivum simsii or Aeonium simsii. As in Tenerife, they were fascinated of the somewhat different landscape they found in Gran Canaria, - more like Africa , Smith several times notes. Both the botanist and the geologist also admired the regular and unbroken crater of Caldera de Bandama. In the same way as they did in Tenerife , they explored and travelled - mostly on feet – through most of the Gran Canaria, often on rather fatiguing walks. For instance they made a six days excursion from Las Palmas
Back inTenerife they made a second accent to the Teyde, this time with starting point in La Laguna, passing La Esperanza and all along the ridge to the Pico. At the return from that tour 5 days later down to Orotava, they also came back almost without shoes, which Smith tells made the Orotava people express Mire los cavalleros sin zapatos!.
After only two weeks in
From the Cañadas area Smith enthusiastically writes about ”the curious retama which at a distance appeared like a lilac”, or una lila - ”with stiff branches without leaves, already covered by sweet smelling flowers being visited by bumblebees collecting from the flowers a honey that is much awarded in the cities”
From the way to the top of the Pico they registered Viola cheiranthifolia. And Smith tells that they all returned from the Teyde excursion to Orotava in triumph with branches of retama in their hats, in the same way as von mboldt told that the goat shepherds of
An excursion through the Cañadas to the south of
Talking about succulents: From the lava fields in Garachico he described a Sempervivum species for which he, in his notes, proposed the name Sempervivum barbatum. Professor Hornemann in
Walking from Garachico along the coast towards San Juan de la Rambla they, by the way, found the fruits of Canarina canariensis being very tastefull!
The roofs in La Laguna were covered by a succulent plant, and Leopold von Buch compared this sight with that of the ”hanging gardens” of
Among several other new succulents, he also gave name to Sempervivum aureum, later known as Greenovia aurea, and to Sempervivum punctatum, which we today better know as Aichryson punctatum. From the La Laguna area he also described Silene lagunensis. Even the common Macaronesian shrub Salix canariensis has for ever its name fixed to Christen Smith’s name.
From their starting point in La Laguna Smith and von Buch had several excursions in the Anaga peninsula and write enthusiasticly about the rich and luxuriant forest vegetation in the Monte de las Mercedes. And the varying character of the landscape at Taganana made Smith express as his opinion that nowhere on the island was it possible to see so much of
From
Back in
From that second Teyde tour Smith collected and described Centaurea teydis and Centaurea cynaroides (now: Stemmacantha cynaroides) from the Cañadas area.
During this second stay in Tenerife they did as botanists often do at autumn time: they collected seeds, ment for the botanical gardens at home. Smith had the responsibility for the new botanical garden in Oslo Oslo garden possessed a large canary palm, Phoenix canariensis, that had originated from seeds collected in the wild in Tenerife in 1815 by Smith!
From Tenerife Smith and von Buch went to La Palma Santa Cruz to the highest peaks of the cumbre and back to Santa Cruz La Palma
Back in Tenerife Smith described from cliffs near La Laguna among others Polycarpaea carnosa. But the end of their stay in the Canaries approached. The ship bound for England
Not much is written about botany in the Lanzarote part of the diary; the reason evidently being that it was to dry at that time of the year. Smith just notes the terrible nakedness in the vegetation all the way, the only sign of life being a few withered Aizoon canariense specimens. What is else said about botany is mostly about barrilla, the soda originating from the plant Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, which was the cargo the ship were to bring to England England
