24 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



which shed their fern-like foliage before the blossoms 

 appear. At all seasons of the year the garden 

 affords a delightful pleasaunce for the inmates of 

 the Hospital, and can never be entirely colourless, as 

 the red dracenas and the bright crimson leaves of 

 the acalypha, which are blotches of a lighter or 

 darker colour, afford a welcome note of colour at all 

 seasons of the year and a relief to the eternal green 

 of the evergreen trees. The walls of the garden 

 are clothed with bougainvilleas, wistarias, and 

 other creepers, and the beds contain a variety of 

 plants, such as clerodendrons, hibiscus, abutilons, 

 begonias, azaleas, and roses. The grass edges to 

 the beds give the garden a character of its own, and 

 might well be copied in other Madeira gardens. 



On the opposite side of the same road at the 

 top of the Augustias Hill stands the Quinta Vigia ; 

 the name means a look-out place or watch-post, 

 and no doubt the villa was so called because the 

 grounds command a fine position, the terrace wall 

 ending with a sheer descent 100 feet or more down 

 to the sea. The garden has a fine view of the 

 harbour, the Brazen Head, the distant islands of 

 the Desertas, and the Loo Rock, which lies imme- 

 diately below the cliff. The late Empress of 

 Austria spent the winter of 1860-61 at this 



