VILLA GARDENS WEST OF FUNCHAL 27 



Large bushes of the sweet-scented diosma and 

 a small heath are a feature of the garden, while 

 the great number of rose-trees are a legacy of one 

 of its English owners, and in spite of the fact 

 that they are now no longer carefully pruned, 

 they flower in great profusion on immense bushes 

 in December, and again in April. 



Near the entrance some large masses of purple 

 and scarlet bougainvillea are to be seen, and by 

 the middle of March the great buds of the immense 

 and rampant-growing solandra are swelling, and 

 in a few days the greenish-white trumpet-shaped 

 flowers will have opened. The beauty of each 

 individual blossom is short-lived : when newly 

 opened it is of a greenish-white, which gradually 

 turns to a deep cream colour, and then, alas ! 

 to a most unsightly brown. Unfortunately, the 

 plant shares with thunbergia its ungraceful habit 

 of retaining its blossoms in death, which mars the 

 beauty of the freshly opened flowers. Large 

 clumps of the yellow-flowered Senecio grandifolia 

 are very effective when the great loose heads of 

 blossom are at their best in February. The plant 

 has fine foliage, and though many people despise 

 it and regard it as a weed, on the outskirts of 

 the garden or hanging over a wall it is certainly 



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