AND PORTO SANTO. 101 



CHAPTER IV. 



Sketch of a Flora. — Geographical distribution of Plants. — Wines. — 

 Cultivation of the Vine. — Soils. — African Imports. — Vegetables. — 

 Di/es. — Timber. 



Wad any thing like a Flora of the island of iNIadeira ever been 

 published, I should not submit the observations I have been able 

 to make, during a short stay there, under the most vmfavourable 

 circumstances. The chief obstacle I have encountered has been 

 the season; a great number of plants are underground, others 

 neither presenting flowers or fruit, and a considerable portion, 

 such as the graminete, entirely burnt up: the rains have been 

 unusually tardy, and consequently, the renewal of vegetation 

 delayed. Other difficulties I look upon as common to all who 

 would undertake a botanical report of Madeira, and only to be 

 overcome by a residence of years, which would allow of a patient 

 investigation. The enchanting landscape which presents itself, 

 flatters the botanist at his first view with a rich harvest, and not 

 until he begins to work in earnest, does he foresee the labours of 

 his task. What can be more delightful than to see the banana 

 and the violet on the same bank, and the mclia azedarach, with its 

 dark shining leaves, raising its summit as high as that of its neigh- 

 bour, the populus alba ? It is this very gratification wliich occasions 

 the perplexity, at the same time that it confirms the opinion, that 

 Madeira might be made the finest experimental garden in the 



