Transcriber’s Notes
The advertising page including Agents, has been moved to the end
of the book.
Hyphenation has been standardised.
THE FLOWERS AND GARDENS
OF MADEIRA
[Illustration: LOO ROCK, FUNCHAL]
THE FLOWERS
AND
GARDENS OF MADEIRA
PAINTED BY
ELLA DU CANE
DESCRIBED BY
FLORENCE DU CANE
[Illustration]
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1909
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. PORTUGUESE GARDENS 9
III. VILLA GARDENS TO THE WEST OF FUNCHAL 20
IV. VILLA GARDENS TO THE EAST OF FUNCHAL 39
V. VILLA GARDENS TO THE EAST OF FUNCHAL (_continued_) 54
VI. THE PALHEIRO 65
VII. CAMACHA AND THE MOUNT 76
VIII. A RAMBLE IN THE HIGHER ALTITUDES 83
IX. A RAMBLE ALONG THE COAST 97
X. CREEPERS 107
XI. TREES AND SHRUBS 118
XII. HISTORICAL SKETCH 133
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Loo Rock, Funchal _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. A Drinking Fountain 4
3. Azaleas in a Portuguese Garden 14
4. Azaleas, Quinta Ilheos 18
5. Datura, Quinta Vigia 24
6. A Group of Senecio 26
7. Weigandia and Daisies 28
8. Cypress Avenue, Quinta Stanford 30
9. Aloes and Daisy Tree 34
10. Poinsettia on the Mount Road 38
11. The Scarlet Bougainvillea 40
12. Wistaria, Santa Luzia 42
13. Roses, Santa Luzia 48
14. Pride of Madeira and Peach Blossom 50
15. Quinta do Til 54
16. On the Torrinhas Road 64
17. Wistaria, Quinta da Levada 76
18. Red Aloes 96
19. Almond Blossom 102
20. Pride of Madeira and Daisies 104
21. The Purple Bougainvillea 106
22. Bignonia Venusta 110
23. Jackaranda Tree 124
24. A Chapel Doorway 132
THE
FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The very name of Madeira (or island of timber, as the word signifies)
brings to the minds of most people a suggestion of luxuriant vegetation
flourishing in a damp, enervating climate. Such, indeed, was my own
mental picture of Madeira before my first visit to the island. I
expected to find every garden with the aspect of a fernery, moisture
dripping everywhere, and the hills clothed with the remains of the
primeval forests. The latter might possibly still have existed had it
not been for the zeal of the discoverers of the island in making use of
their discovery from a utilitarian point of view, and cutting clearings
for the cultivation of the rich and fertile land. In order to clear
the ground of the forests, which we are told clothed the island to its
very shores, the drastic measure of setting fire to it was resorted to:
hence the destruction (as old historians assert that the fire raged for
over two years) of all the forests on the south side of the island.
Some feeling of disappointment entered my mind when I first looked on
the Bay of Funchal. As compared to the wooded appearance the north
of the island presents, the south side, viewed from the sea, appears
to have much less vegetation. Large stretches of pine woods, it is
true, have been replanted, and though they are used for timber, and
are felled before they attain any great size, regulations exist
which oblige any person who cuts down a tree to plant another in its
place. Though I should imagine it is more than doubtful whether this
regulation is carried out to the letter, the plantations are replanted,
or the stock of timber would otherwise soon become exhausted. The
fact that the south side of any island is naturally the most suited
for cultivation has also led to the destruction of the woods, and on
approaching the island it is very soon seen that every available inch
of ground is cultivated in some form or another. The cultivation
may take the form of some cared-for garden, where trees, shrubs, and
creepers from the tropics may be flourishing side by side with more
familiar vegetation, or may merely be the little terraced patch of
ground surrounding the humblest cottage, where the harvest of the
crop--be it sugar-cane, _batata_ (sweet potato), or yam--is eagerly
looked forward to, in order to eke out the very slender means of its
habitants.
The feelings of Edward Bowdick, as described in “Excursions to Madeira
and Porto Santo in 1823,” must often have been re-echoed by many a
visitor who sees the island for the first time: “To those who have
visited the tropics nothing can be more gratifying than to find the
trees they have there dwelt on with so much pleasure, and which are
decidedly the most beautiful part of the Creation; to be reminded of
the vast solitudes, where vegetable nature seems to reign uncontrolled
and untouched; to see the bright blue sky through the delicate
pinnated leaves of the mimosa, whilst the wood strawberry at its feet
recalls the still dearer recollection of home; to gather the fallen
guavas with one hand and the blackberry with the other; to be able to
choose between the apples and cherries of Europe (which are so much
regretted) and the banana--it is this feeling which makes Madeira so
delightful, independent of its beautiful scenery and the constancy and
softness of its temperature.”
[Illustration: A DRINKING FOUNTAIN]
Any feeling of disappointment that the traveller may have experienced
from his first cursory glance at the island must surely be quickly
dispelled on landing, especially if this should be in the month of
January, when, having left the snows and frosts of Europe behind, after
travelling for four days he is basking in the almost perpetual sunshine
of so-called winter in Madeira. Lovers of flowers--and to those I most
recommend a visit to the island--will find fresh beauties even at every
turn of the street: the gorgeous-coloured creepers seem to have taken
possession everywhere. Hanging over every wall where their presence
is permitted will come tumbling some great mass of creeper, be it the
orange _Bignonia venustus_, whose clusters of surely the most brilliant
orange-coloured flower that grows completely smother the foliage; or
the scarlet, purple, or lilac bougainvillea, whose splendour will take
one’s breath away, with its dazzling mass of blossoms. The great white
trumpets of the datura, combined possibly with the flaunting
red pointsettia blossoms, will quickly show the fresh arrival the
bewildering variety of the vegetation--so much so that I cannot fail
again to sympathize with Mr. Bowdick, who, writing on the subject,
says: “The enchanting landscape which presents itself flatters the
botanist at the first view with a rich harvest, and not until he begins
to work in earnest does he foresee the labours of his task. What can be
more delightful than to see the banana and the violet on the same bank,
and the _Melia adzerach_, with its dark shining leaves, raising its
summit as high as that of its neighbour, the _Populus alba_? It is this
very gratification which occasions the perplexity, at the same time
that it confirms the opinion, that Madeira might be made the finest
experimental garden in the world, and that an interchange of the plants
of the tropical and temperate climates might be made successfully after
they had been completely naturalized there.”
Since the above was written (1823) no doubt much has been done in
the way of naturalizing plants from other countries, chiefly by the
English, who are the owners of most of the principal gardens in and
around Funchal. Many a plant and bulb from the Cape has found a new
home in Madeira, and has spread throughout the length and breadth of
the island, straying from gardens until they have now become almost
hedgerow flowers; while at a higher altitude than Funchal, plants from
England and other parts of Europe have also found a new resting-place.
It is not only to lovers of flowers, who, should they become the happy
possessors of a garden in Madeira, will find in it a never-ending
source of enjoyment, but also to those who wish to explore the natural
scenery of the island, that I heartily recommend a visit to Madeira.
Probably no other island of its size has such grand and varied
scenery. Being only some thirty-three miles long and fifteen across
even at the widest part, most people look incredulous when told of
the inaccessibleness of some of the more remote parts of the island,
picturing to themselves the possibility of seeing the whole island
in one or, at the outside, two days by means of the now ubiquitous
motor-car. These impatient travellers had better stay away from
Madeira, for their motor-cars will be of no use to them, the gradients
of the roads being too steep for any but the most powerful of cars,
even if the roads themselves were not paved with the most unlevel
cobble-stones. To anyone who has leisure to spend in exploring the
island, merely for the sake either of admiring its scenery, or making
a collection of the many ferns which adorn every nook and cranny of
the deep ravines, I can promise ample reward; always supposing that
they are sufficiently good travellers not to consider comfortable hotel
accommodation as being an essential part of their expedition. Away from
Funchal no hotels exist in Madeira; but if it is the right season of
the year, and a spell of fine weather is reasonably to be expected,
tent-life must be resorted to, or the primitive accommodation afforded
by the engineers’ huts in various districts, or rooms in the most
primitive of village inns.
Enthusiastic admirers of the scenery of Madeira have compared
its grandeur to that of the Yosemite Valley in miniature: its
mountain-peaks, it is true, only range from 4,000 to 6,000 feet, but
the abruptness with which they rise gives an impression of enormous
depth to the densely wooded ravines. In an article on Madeira written
by Mr. Frazer in 1875 it will be seen that he also compared its scenery
to some of the grandest mountain scenery in the world. Writing of an
expedition to the north side of the island, he says: “The beauty of
the scene culminated at the little hamlet of Cruzinhas, whence we
looked into a labyrinth of dark precipitous ravines, formed by the
gorges of the central group of mountains, whose peaks, fortunately
unclouded for a time, resembled in their fantastic ruggedness those of
the Dolomites; but their sides being densely wooded with the sparkling
laurel, and the ravines themselves more tortuous, we, I need hardly
say, reluctantly came to the conclusion that even the Dolomite gorges
could not equal them. There was none of the splendid rock-colouring of
the Dolomites, but for deep-wooded ravines of deep mysterious gloom,
descending from pinnacled mountains, it is a great question whether the
Tyrol must not yield to Madeira.”