50 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



white flowers, which is a pretty idea, though true 

 blue flowers are scarce. Blue salvias and solanums, 

 justicias and linums are a good foundation for 

 the garden, which, again, has paved walks, into 

 whose cracks innumerable treasures have sown 

 themselves. Freesias, violets, which, though not 

 true blue, are too sweet to be ruthlessly weeded 

 out, and forget-me-nots seem to flourish between 

 the stones. Plumbago and Solanum crispum clothe 

 the walls on one side, and the chief treasure 

 of the blue garden, Echium fastuosum, provides a 

 forest of great blue spikes all through March. 

 This plant, which is a native of Madeira, and is 

 generally called Pride of Madeira, finds a home 

 among the cliffs on the seashore, but in a cultivated 

 state it is a much more beautiful plant. It is 

 raised from seed, and the plants seem to be at their 

 best about the second year, producing innumerable 

 large feathery spikes of bloom of a very bright 

 blue. There seem to be different strains of it, as 

 occasionally it is merely a dingy grey, and I have 

 never seen it so good a colour in its wild state, nor 

 with such large heads of bloom, so it is to be hoped 

 that this garden variety will be perpetuated, though 

 it is possible that it is merely the soil which affects 

 its colour, in the same way that it affects the colour 



