248 GARDENS AND ORANGE GROUNDS OF ST. MICHAEL'S. 



present great taste for gardening. Jealous of the improvements 

 he was making, other proprietors began to follow his example. 

 Senhor Antonio Borges, profiting by the bad effects he had wit- 

 nessed in the garden of Jose do Canto, produced by sea breezes, 

 selected a site for his garden in a valley at the west end of the 

 island, very much resembling the valley I described in the begin- 

 ning of this paper. Many plants succeeded well there that would 

 not grow in our garden, particularly American plants. During 

 my stay at St. Michael's 1 designed and partly laid out two large 

 places for the Barao das Laranjeiras and Senhor Jose Jaconie 

 Correa. The Visconde da Praya employs an English cultivator, 

 Mr, Webster, who is propagating and preparing plants for a gar- 

 den the Visconde has proposed making many years. At present 

 not much has been done. Some years ago Senhor Louriano made 

 an English garden, containing grass, rock work, water, hill and 

 dale, fountains, &c., on little more than half an acre of ground. 

 Shortly after the Barao da Fontabella made a garden at Botelho, 

 four miles from Ponta Delgado, consisting of a series of terraces, 

 a large architectural basin, temples, statues, and fountains. In 

 this establishment is a splendid Magnolia grandiflora, some ar- 

 bours covered with Duranta Plumieri, and a plant of Tristania 

 neriifolia thirty feet high ; also some magnificent Camellias, Mela- 

 leucas, &c. This garden is small and very much crowded, yet 

 very interesting. It is connected with Orange grounds that con- 

 tain some beautiful avenues of Pittosporum undulatum. 



The Orange gardens of St. Michael's are, however, what form 

 the principal wealth of the island. But for them the country 

 would be one large field of Indian corn. To preserve the Orange- 

 trees from being broken by the high winds when laden with fruit, 

 it is requisite to plant tall quick-growing trees round and across 

 the quintas, the Portuguese name of the Orange grounds. These 

 shelters, composed of Myrica Faya, Camphoras, Pittosporum un- 

 dulata and Tobira, each possessing their own particular green, 

 and scattered over the face of the country with an irregular hand, 

 give a wild and varied charm to the landscape almost indescribable. 

 It is every man's ambition to possess a quinta. They toil early 

 and late, live on Indian corn-bread and water day after day, in 

 order that they may purchase a quinta in which to spend their 

 saint-days and Sundays. Quintas are the emporiums of pic-nics ; 

 the places of retreat of the citizens in summer. Most of them 

 contain a snug cottage ; and the shelters aftbrd plenty of shady 

 walks. These quintas are of as many different forms and sizes as 

 they possess owners. Every proprietor is his own decigner, and 

 a great variety of taste is displayed. On one point, however, 

 they all agree, which is that every quinta must have a high tower 

 and flagstaff, from which flags and pennants wave on every occasion. 



