A RAMBLE ALONG THE COAST
The vegetation along the seashore is naturally very different to that
at a higher altitude. Wherever it has been found possible, the ground
has been brought into cultivation, even up to a height of 2,500 feet.
Pressed by the ever-increasing population, and the consequent need of
more food for more mouths, the country-people are continually bringing
into cultivation fresh patches of ground. No minute piece seems to be
wasted, and many an odd corner and neglected patch which, from its
steepness or the poor quality of soil, escaped cultivation in years
gone by, being rejected as incapable of bringing any return for the
vast labour which has to be applied to it in the first instance, has
been, as it were, pressed into service of late years. The larger
expanses of cultivated ground have been utilized for the profitable and
ever-increasing sugar crop, and these tiny terraces, when the stones
have been dug out or the rock blasted, and walls built to support
possibly only a few square yards of the levelled ground, will grow a
scanty crop of some article of food. Thus bit by bit the cultivation
has crept up the hills, and has done much to mar the beauty of the
island. The peasants are very primitive in their modes of cultivation,
and as long as the ground receives occasional irrigation during the
hot, dry months, and the surface is roughly broken with their native
hoe, it is all they consider necessary, and are strongly averse to
every kind of innovation. It is small wonder that even in such a
climate the crop suffers; the earth becomes impoverished and the
vegetables produced are of a most inferior quality. Their principal
root crops are the ordinary potato; the sweet potato (_Batata edulis_),
a plant of the convolvulus family; and the _inhame_, a kind of yam. The
sweet potato is one of their staple articles of food, and the native
appears to consume an inordinately large quantity of _batatas_. The
tuberous roots yield three or even four crops annually. In situations
where the ground can be kept constantly so supplied with moisture as
to be in a swampy condition, the _inhame_ (_Colocaria antiquorum_) is
grown even up to a very high elevation, some 2,500 feet. It is quite
different to the West Indian yam, and belongs to the arum family;
indeed, its leaves at once suggest those of arum lilies, only the
roots are edible. These are another most important article of food.
Other crops are haricot beans, the ripe seeds of our French beans,
whose young pods are nearly always in season; but with the Portuguese
it is the ripe seeds (_feijoens_) which are most valued for making
their _sopas_, or vegetable soups. Lupines, lentils, and the chickpea
(the _grao de bico_ of the Portuguese), broadbeans, and peas, come
into market in the winter months, but are of very poor quality and
singularly tasteless, even when gathered young, which it is very
difficult to persuade the peasant cultivator to do. That they need
not be poor in quality and flavour, if more pains were taken in their
cultivation, is proved by the fact that in private gardens where
fresh seed is imported from England or America excellent peas can be
grown. Another most important article of food is derived from several
varieties of the pumpkin tribe, and in summer over every trellis,
and even on the straw roofs of the peasants’ huts, the gourd-bearing
plants are trained, and their _aboboras_, as they are called, are
carefully tended. Mr. Lowe writes: “For at least six months in the
year (August to January) the _aboboras_ constitute almost one-third
of the daily nourishment of all classes; and from their facility of
combination by boiling with fatty substances, together with their
large supply of saccharine, besides their farinaceous material, afford
a most nutritious food, evinced by the surprising muscular power
of the Madeiran peasantry.” The pearshaped, green, wrinkled fruit
called pepinella (_Sechium edule_), or chou-chou by the English, is
not unlike a cucumber, and yields a constant supply in the winter
months. Spinach, cabbages, and cauliflowers are, I believe, only grown
for the requirements of the English, and to provision the passing
ships, and with these the list of vegetables closes--and somehow is
a disappointing one--and many an English person longs for the fresh
vegetables from a home-garden.
Nor is the list of fruits a long one. The orange-tree has practically
died out. The apathy of the native made him consider the task of
fighting the disease called scale, induced by an insect, too arduous
a one, as constant washing of the trees is necessary to prevent
its ravages; and he remained content to see all the orange-groves
disappear, and the fruit is now imported from the Azores, Portugal,
and even South America. At one time, we are told, the vast banana
plantations gave quite a tropical aspect to the gardens about Funchal;
they have been largely replaced of late years by sugar-cane, and are no
longer so extensively cultivated as the facilities due to cold storage
on ships flooded the European market with bananas of the West Indies.
Several varieties are grown, but the fruit of the silver banana, a tall
growing kind, is most prized and fetches a higher price than that of
the dwarf _Musa Cavendishii_. In an old account of Madeira, printed in
Astley’s “General Collection of Voyages and Travels,” the following
curious account of the plant appears: “The banana is in singular esteem
and even veneration, being reckoned for its deliciousness the forbidden
fruit. To confirm this surmise they allege the size of its leaves. It
is considered almost a crime to cut this fruit with a knife, because
after dissection it gives a faint similitude of a crucifix; and this
they say is to wound Christ’s sacred image.”
[Illustration: ALMOND BLOSSOM]
Sufficient lemons and citrons are grown to supply the requirements of
the island. The custard apple, _Anona cherimolia_, ranks high among the
island fruits, and is hailed with delight when it first appears in the
market in late autumn. In common with the guava, it was originally
imported from America; while the mango, whose fruit leaves room for
much improvement, came from India. Guavas are extensively used, either
uncooked, stewed, or possibly in the most favourite form, made into
a clear, transparent jelly. The loquat bears abundantly, and as it
is very readily increased from seed, has become a very common tree,
though I do not consider the fruit to be as good as those of the
Italian loquats. The pittanga, mentioned previously, being the fruit
of a kind of myrtle, _Eugenia Braziliensis_, and the avocado pear, an
insipid fruit, generally eaten with pepper and salt, are both, to my
mind, fruits which require an acquired taste in order to appreciate
them. Among European fruits, the best is possibly the fig, of which
there are several varieties, the most popular having a nearly black
fruit. The trees, which grow mostly near the seashore, assume curiously
distorted and stunted shapes, and spring from the clefts in the rocks,
often overhanging the sea. They are particularly noticeable on the
road between Funchal and the seaside village of Camara do Lobos.
Granadillos, the fruit of different varieties of passion-flowers, some
having purple fruit, others orange, suggest an exaggerated gooseberry,
as the fruit when cut has much the same appearance, with large
seeds embedded in a pulpy consistency. The insipid fruit of the
common cactus, or prickly-pear, is much relished by the natives in
hot weather, who, I was assured, gather it in the early morning, and
before handling it, roll it about under their callous feet in a tub
of water to get rid of the spines. The Cape gooseberry, the fruit of
_Physalis Peruviana_, is prized for making preserves, and the plant has
become naturalized. Many of our European fruits are cultivated, but
produce fruit of a very inferior quality, the trees being seldom, if
ever, pruned, and receiving little attention; but apples, pears, plums,
apricots, and peaches, all come into the market in the course of the
summer and autumn, while strawberries continue in bearing from the end
of March till September.
[Illustration: PRIDE OF MADEIRA AND DAISIES]
The fruit-trees are more valued for the beauty of their blossoms than
their fruit by the English as a rule; and in spring, when the peach and
apricot trees are laden with their pink blossoms, the country near the
seashore, especially on the east side of the town, is very beautiful.
The rocky nature of the ground in many places has made cultivation
impossible, and stretches remain where the natural rock, covered
with crustaceous lichens, appears. The shallow soil only provides a
home for cactuses, which grow to an immense size; but now and then a
peach-tree or a little colony of almond-trees have found sufficient
soil in which to get a hold. The trees may be twisted and distorted,
storm-bent by the strong winds that sweep in from the Atlantic, but
for that reason are all the more picturesque; while here and there a
group of stone-pines, or a group of cypresses--sentinels, guarding
a little silent graveyard--give variety to the landscape, and stand
out in admirable contrast to the deep blue sea below. Such plants
as an occasional _Euphorbia piscatoria_, a cheiranthus, a lavender,
(_Lavandula pinnata_), the Madeira stock (_Mathiola Maderensis_),
some of the sedums, _Sonchus pinnatus_, of the sow-thistle family,
a native of the island, and a long list of other more or less
insignificant wild-flowers, may all be noticed. But by far the most
beautiful and showy is the _Echium fastuosum_, pride of Madeira, which
is to be seen on the cliffs along the New Road, though never with
as large and perfect heads of bloom, or so deep in colour, as when
cultivated. Another variety, _candicans_, has flowers of a darker
blue, but is only to be found in the hills. Among this rough ground,
and unfortunately in many a ravine and wall which was formerly
clad with ferns and plants of a far more interesting nature, the
rank-growing _Eupatorium adenophorum_ seems to have taken complete
possession, and threatens to become a very serious eyesore and enemy to
the natural vegetation. The Portuguese have christened it _Abundancia_,
and it is well named, as there seems to be no end to its abundance;
its dirty-coloured fluffy heads of blossom spread their seed in all
directions. It was an evil day when it was first introduced to the
island as a treasure, carefully installed in a pot. Other horticultural
pests have been introduced in the same way, such as the rosy purple
_Oxalis venusta_, whose little flowers are pretty enough in their way,
but its far-spreading roots have become a most troublesome weed in
cultivated ground; and the yellow double-flowered _Oxalis cornuta_ is
even worse, taking complete possession in some places of any sort of
grass-land. The dreaded coco, a grass growing from a tiny bulb, which
throws out long and far-reaching roots, runs in the ground, till once
thoroughly established, there is no end to it; this also was imported,
probably accidentally, not much more than twenty years ago. The most
serious of all pests in the island, the tiny black ants, the despair
of house-keepers, fruit-growers and gardeners alike, were also imported
from Brazil, and have gradually spread from the lower to the higher
altitudes, until now I believe there is scarcely a district left in the
island which is free from their ravages.
[Illustration: THE PURPLE BOUGAINVILLEA]