VILLA GARDENS WEST OF FUNCHAL 37 



more flower-heads at the same time. The bulb has 

 long narrow green foliage, which is very ornamental. 

 The flowers have a delicate but somewhat sickly 

 scent ; the plant is a native of Natal, and, like 

 others of its compatriots, has taken kindly to the 

 climate and soil of Madeira. 



It would be impossible to enumerate all the host of 

 other plants the garden contains creepers, shrubs, 

 flowering trees, besides roses, begonias, geraniums, 

 heliotropes, in an almost endless list while the cliffs 

 have remained a natural rock-garden. In the clefts 

 of the rocks giant agaves occasionally throw up 

 their great flower-heads fifteen feet or more in height, 

 and then the plant, as if exhausted by the supreme 

 effort in the climax of its existence, dies ; but it is 

 quickly replaced by hundreds of others, as the seed 

 of the monster flower has found fresh ground in 

 every nook and cranny. Besides the agaves, clumps 

 of prickly-pear, or Opuntia tuna, with its curious 

 succulent growth clothed with poisonous thorns, 

 some wild saxifrages and tufts of Echium fastuosum, 

 known as Pride of Madeira, have all found a home. 



This garden is the last one of any interest on th 

 west side of the town, as beyond lie only a fe^ 

 modern villas in the worst possible taste, with no 

 grounds worthy of the name of a garden; but 



