78 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



flowers are not of the best, and it is very much 

 to be regretted that some enterprising person does 

 not start a shop or garden where cut flowers and 

 plants could be bought. Many a time have I been 

 asked where, in this land of flowers, good cut flowers 

 can be procured, and the answer has had to be 

 " Nowhere." Would-be purchasers have to satisfy 

 themselves with the contents of these baskets which 

 are brought to the hotel and villa doors, and their 

 contents are far from satisfactory. Beyond arum 

 lilies, violets, and irises, a few indifferent daffodils 

 and poor roses, there is little to be got. The women 

 will complain that they have not a large sale for 

 flowers, and it is in vain that I have told them that 

 the real reason of it is that their flowers are so poor. 

 Nosegays of a mixture of a dozen flowers, in as many 

 colours, naturally find no market ; but good flowers, 

 I feel sure, would have a large and ready sale at 

 reasonable prices. 



The little gardens at Camacha are gay with 

 common flowers : large bushes of white marguerites 

 and trees of the early-flowering red Rhododendron 

 arboreum give colour to the village even in early 

 spring, and in summer it is naturally much more 

 flowery. On every bank and hedgerow grow 

 bushes of hydrangeas, with their flaunting blue 



