86 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



cessions, after a height of 3,000 feet are no longer 

 to be seen, and the country gradually becomes barren 

 of vegetation. Rocks of basalt and red tufa appear, 

 and the long sweeps of turf are only broken by 

 large bushes of a heath, called, I believe, Erica 

 scoparia, which, from being constantly eaten off by 

 the mountain sheep and goats, gets a curiously 

 distorted and stunted growth, though they eventu- 

 ally attain to a large size, and have such venerable- 

 looking stems that they are suggestive of the dwarfed 

 trees of the Japanese. Then comes the region 

 of the Vaccinium Maderense, or padifolium, which 

 varies in appearance according to the season. In 

 winter it has crimson foliage, then it bears waxy 

 bell-shaped blossoms, and in autumn is covered 

 with almost black berries. From the situation in 

 which it grows, exposed to the full blast of the 

 north wind which sweeps over that stretch of 

 country, it also has a bent and distorted appearance ; 

 and the dampness of the air as, more often than 

 not, at this altitude a white mist envelops the land 

 causes its stems to be covered with the Usnea 

 lichen, which waves from one tree to another like 

 masses of long green hair. 



A turn in the road, at an altitude of some 4,800 

 feet, just beyond the rest-house at the bleak spot 



