72 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



rarer native wild -flowers, such as the monster 

 buttercup, Ranunculus grandifolia, and the giant 

 fennel, have been introduced, and are thoroughly 

 in keeping with their wild and natural surroundings. 

 A path winds down the little valley following the 

 bed of the stream, and on emerging from the deep 

 shade of the fern-trees, broad masses of naturalized 

 plants are revealed with every turn of the path. 

 On a grassy slope, over which tower two or three 

 grand old stone pines, thousands upon thousands 

 of golden lupins have sown themselves. A single 

 specimen of a plant may often hardly be regarded 

 or considered worthy of notice, but the same plant, 

 when seen in great masses, may call forth universal 

 admiration because of the wealth of colour it 

 provides. In summer the agapanthus will send 

 up innumerable heads of clear blue flowers, while 

 the little Fuchsia coccinea seems to flower bravely 

 at all seasons of the year. In order to show that 

 even in this favoured land it is possible to have 

 failures in the gardens, and importations from other 

 climes do not always succeed, some rhododendrons, 

 even the common ponticum, were pointed out to me 

 as never having made themselves at home, and in 

 a shady corner hundreds of our English primroses 

 had been planted, but had pined away and died. 



