8 ME. BUNBUBY ON THE BOTANY OF MADEIEA. 



Eunchal he finds that it does not succeed. Fuchsia coccinea 

 grows most luxuriantly at the Jardim, where Mr. Yeitch culti- 

 vates it for food for cattle. He informed me that, in consequence 

 of the scarcity of grass, the cattle are generally fed during winter 

 on the leaves and young branches of trees or bushes, and that 

 there is nothing which they eat with so much eagerness as the 

 Fuchsia. 



I observed that the Sweet Chestnut trees, which are cultivated 

 here and there in the lower grounds in the neighbourhood of 

 Funchal, retain most of their leaves through the winter, the 

 foliage being partly green even in January, while those on the 

 mountains are as completely deciduous as in Europe. 



The highest parts of the southern mountains above the chest- 

 nut woods have a very bare appearance, and, at the season of my 

 visit, exhibited very few plants in a recognizable state. Large 

 spaces are covered with low stunted bushes of Erica scoparia and 

 Laurus Ganariensis ; the margins of the little mountain streams 

 are fringed with Brambles {JRubus fruticosus ?) and a few Ferns, 

 particularly Gymnogramme Lowei and Lomaria Spicant * ; the 

 earthy banks are covered with small Jungermannicc, and the rocks 

 with crustaceous Lichens, among which Lecidea geographica is 

 abundant and conspicuous. A very handsome bushy white Stereo- 

 caulon grows in profusion on the rocks. Mosses are not plentiful 

 in this bare and exposed region, with the exception of Polytrichwm 

 nanum and the ubiquitous P. juniperinum. 



When we cross the watershed of the mountains, and begin to 

 descend towards the northern side of Madeira, the appearance of 

 the vegetation changes remarkably. In consequence, probably, 

 of the less attractive climate, and the frequency of rains and 

 storms, the quantity of cleared and cultivated land is compara- 

 tively very small on the northern side of the island, and the great- 

 est part remains in its original state, while this same abundance 

 of moisture promotes a luxuriant growth of native vegetation. 

 There is, indeed, on the southern side of the watershed one great 

 valley, the Serra d'Agoa, which sends its waters to the south, and 

 which yet remains as much in a state of nature, and is as richly 

 wooded, as any of the northern valleys. But the upper part of 

 the Serra d'Agoa valley, to which this observation applies, is a 

 basin of immense depth, almost surrounded by high mountains of 

 excessive steepness, and in great measure sheltered from the 

 effects of the southern winds and sun by a ridge which, branching 

 * These two ascend to upwards of 3800 feet. 



