Geology i and Climate of the Uland of Madeira, 



strawberry, and our European fruits and esculent plants of 

 every sort flourish. 



" Whatever Earth, all bearing mother, yields 

 In India East or West, or middle shore 

 In Pontus or the Punic coast, or where 

 Alcinous reigned ; fruit of all kinds, in coat 

 Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell, — " 



Paradise Lost, v. 338. 



— the produce of every clime is heaped together; and the 

 flora * presents a like union of endlessly varied vegetation. 

 In this respect, indeed, the happy confusion of climate de- 

 scribed by the poet is exemplified : 



Hie ver assiduum atque alienis maisihus a^tas, — Georg. ii. 149. 



To an English botanist it is delightful to go forth at a sea- 

 son of the year when at home scarcely a moss will reward his 

 laborious search, and speedily fill his box with plants in full 

 flower, and most of them entirely new to him. The change is re- 

 markable, from being within a distance of only eight or ten days 

 from home. On one morning in December, on the sea-cliff's, a 

 little east of the city, I gathered, along with many other good 

 plants, the following in flower : — Matthiola Maderemis^ Latan- 



* The indigenous flora of the island is now with difficulty distinguished, 

 on account of the multitude of plants that have been introduced. It does 

 not seem so rich as the variety of climate might lead one to expect. Pro- 

 bably it does not much exceed 300 species of phenogamous plants ; but many 

 of them are interesting to the botanist, as being peculiar to the island, or 

 common to it only witli the Canaries. The ferns arc the most conspicuous 

 of the natural families, there being about forty species. As yet there is no 

 published flora of the island. Tb.e following are the chief sources of infor- 

 mation : — Bowditch's Excursions in Madeira, chapter iv. and Appendix, 

 In the Botanical Miscellany (Hooker's), Part I. of New Series, a list by M. 

 Frederick IIoU of Dresden, with Notes by the Rev. R. T. Lowe, A. M., 

 Cantab., and clergyman of the English Chapel at Funchal. In the Cam- 

 bridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. iv. part i. (" Primitioe Faimse et 

 Florae Madenc et Portus Sancti"), and in vol. vi. part iii. (" Novitiae Florae 

 Maderensis"), many new or rare species are described by Mr Lowe. The 

 great work on the Fishes of Madeira, since undertaken by Mr Lowe, has 

 prevented his fulfilling the purpose, expressed in his Cambridge papers, of 

 publishing a Flora Maderensis, — a work which, from the botanical acquire- 

 ments, learning, and varied accomplishments of the author, as well as from 

 the peculiar interest of the locality, could not fail to be one of the moit 

 valuable lc£al floras ever published* 



