438 WILLIAM Christy's 



good, of a deep red colour, and the prevalent, indeed only, 

 crops were wheat and lupines ; the latter are a species with blue 

 flowers and a white seed, perhaps L. Termis. The young 

 wheat was looking very well, and we were told the harvest 

 would be in July. We understood there was a good deal of 

 game in this extensive district, principally red-legged partridge, 

 with woodcocks and snipes in the more marshy spots. At the 

 extremity of this plain, and almost close to the road, but con- 

 cealed from it by intervening rising ground, is situated the 

 forest of Agua Garcia, so deservedly praised by Webb and 

 Berthelot, both for its magnificent sylvan scenery and the rare 

 plants it affords. Being prevented from stopping on this occa- 

 sion, we resolved to visit it on our return, if opportunity offered. 

 A stream of water from the source which gives name to the 

 forest is here carried across the road towards the sea, and serves 

 to irrigate the fertile district between the road and the sea. The 

 aspect of the country now changed, but was still decidedly 

 English. High banks, with shady hedges overrun with bram- 

 bles, enclosed the road, and although the plants and shrubs 

 were not British, they had nothing sufficiently striking in their 

 appearance to remind us that we were not riding along some 

 lane in our own country. They consisted mostly of Sallx 



Canariensis, Myrica Faija, Ruhus , (I will not venture to 



guess the species,) entwined with Rubia fruticosa and Peri- 

 ploca Iwmgata ? There were also a large fern, resembling 

 Jspidium dilataUim, (but in quite too young a state for ex- 

 amination,) and a profusion of most delicious violets, which 

 perfumed the air for a considerable distance. The moister 

 banks, too, were ornamented with the fine leaves of Ranunculus 

 Cortusafolius, mixed with abundance of those of a species of 

 Cineraria, of a fine deep purple beneath. If it at all resembles 

 any of those cultivated in our green-houses, a bank covered 

 with it, in blossom, must be a beautiful object. Where the 

 banks were in some places built up with stone, the crevices 

 were filled with Asplenium pahnatum, and here and there a 

 plant of DavalUa Canariensis, though as yet we had seen this 

 fern far more rarely than in Madeira. We crossed several 

 rocky ravines, the precipitous sides of which were fringed with 

 several plants we had not before met with. Among them were 

 Myrsine Canariensis, Viburnum ruyosum, Prenanthes arborea? 

 and a very beautiful multifid-leaved species of Lavandula. 



