BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE AZORES. 81 
equal to those of Madeira, are now nearly all of extremely 
inferior quality. In their season, the loquat ( Hriobotrya ) 
and orange are met with in abundance, and of the best 
quality, though the famous St. Michael’s oranges, like the 
grapes, have proved so subject to disease that they are now 
comparatively little grown. 
Bananas of the sapientum type (called silver bananas), 
and more commonly those of the Cavendishi type, are 
successfully grown, and though the fruit is of small size, 
it is generally sweet and of good flavor. Figs of several 
varieties mature perfectly. 
Of late years, the former orange industry of San Miguel 
has been replaced to a certain extent by the cultivation of 
pineapples, which are of unusually good quality, and find a 
ready market in England at ahigh price. Unlike the fruits 
heretofore mentioned, these do not thrive in the open air, 
but require the shelter of glass houses of the general con- 
struction of our American commercial plant-houses, but 
without artificial heat. 
The number of decorative plants cultivated out of doors, 
or capable of open-air cultivation, in the Azores, is ex- 
tremely large. The islanders, as a rule, are fond of 
flowers, and even in the cities nearly every bit of ground 
about the houses, not needed for other purposes, is planted 
with the common flowers of temperate regions, while now 
and then such trees as Magnolia grandiflora are seen, 
vegetating luxuriantly and flowering freely. Several of 
the cities have small public gardens, of which that at Angra, 
the capital of Terceira, is the most successful. In nearly 
all of the towns, the more prosperous citizens have ampli- 
fied the small dooryard flower bed into a garden or quinta 
of some pretensions, in which one is sure to see growing 
many of the plants met with in Californian gardens. The 
surroundings of many suburban places are lavishly embel- 
lished in this manner. In the most prosperous island, San 
Miguel, indeed, are several gardens as extensive as those of 
less restricted countries, and with as varied vegetation as 
6 
