120 EXCURSIONS IN MADEIRA 



guava (psydium j)i/riferuni) attain a large size, and produce good 

 fruit'', and the melia azedarach flourishes in great beauty". 



'■ The gooseberry bushes do not bear good fruit under a height of 2000 feet ; the 

 mulberries are singularly fine, and there is a standard nectarine-tree in Mr. Veitch's 

 garden upwards of thirty feet high. 



' It stands the frosts of the higher parts of the island. In India, this tree is valued 

 for its wood, which is white and durable, and much used for household furniture. 

 Ainslie's Materia Medica of Hindostan. An oil may be extracted from its berry 

 which defies the approach of insects ; a small piece of cotton dipped in it, and lied to 

 the leg of a table, will even prevent the smaller reptiles, such as lizards, from coming- 

 near it, and the only drawback on this valuable property is its disagreeable smell. 

 M. DecandoUe mentions, that the m. azedarach has withstood a cold of 23° Fahrenheit, 

 on the lake of Geneva ; there is no doubt, therefore, that so useful a tree might be 

 naturalized in most parts of Europe ; and its beauty and fragrant bunches of flowers 

 would adorn our shrubberies. The Portuguese consider the myrtle to be the hardest 

 wood, and there are now standing, trees of it nearly three feet in circumference. They 

 do not seem to be aware of the extraordinary durability of the vine, which Pliny 

 asserts, (1. 14. c. 1,) instancing a statue of Jupiter at Populonium, formed out of an 

 entire piece of that wood, which had existed many ages, and was still free from any 

 trace of decay. I do not think they have ever been able to cut any planks from the 

 vine, (although there is said to be one on the north side of the island, so large as to 

 produce a pipe of wine) whereas, we know that the great doors of the Cathedral of 

 Ravenna are made of vine wood, and that the planks are more than thirteen feet 

 long, and nearly one and a quarter wide. The largest tree I have seen in the island 

 Is a sweet chestnut, twenty-five feet in circumference. 



In 1815 the population of Madeira amounted to 90,916; it is supposed to be 

 upwards of 100,000 at present. It has evidently sprung from several mixed sources. 

 Among the Arabic documents in the Torre de Tombo, there is a letter from the 

 Moors of Cafy to King Manuel, dated 1509, complaining, that the new Portuguese 

 Governor, Diogo de Azambrya, after entering into their town, " with a cane in his 

 hand, and some sweet basil in his mouth," and giving every pledge of his future 

 prudence and justice, suddenly seized several Moorish and Jewish merchants, and 

 sold them to the brother of the Governor of Madeira, who happened to be there at the 

 time with troops. Documentos Arabicos, copiados dos Origaes da Torre de Tombo, 

 Lisboa, 1790, p. ] 1—24. 



