18 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



slipping all four ends through a hollow piece of 

 cane a couple of inches long. Side arches can be 

 made in any number, according to the requirements 

 of the plant or the fancy of the gardener, by making 

 incisions in the stout bamboos at any distance from 

 the ground, and inserting the ends of the split canes. 

 Old carnation plants, or^seedlings which bear many 

 flower-stems, may be very successfully and neatly 

 supported in this way. 



Another contrivance for the increase of their 

 rose-trees struck me as original, and worth men- 

 tioning, and possibly imitating, by those who garden 

 in a subtropical climate this is their system of 

 layering rose-branches. My idea of layering carna- 

 tions, shrubs, or any other plants, had always been 

 to cut the plant at a joint, and peg it firmly into 

 the ground, covering with a few inches of fine soil ; 

 but the Madeira gardeners adopt a different system, 

 anyway, with regard to their roses. The branch 

 for layering is not chosen near the ground, but 

 often at a height of from two to four feet. The 

 chosen branch is passed through the hole at the 

 bottom of a flower-pot, or a box with a good- 

 sized hole in it answers the same purpose ; the 

 pot or box is then supported at the necessary height 

 on a tripod of sticks or bamboos. The branch has 



