108 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



blossoms. Here such care is not necessary, and 

 the natural beauty of the plant can be seen to 

 full advantage where it has escaped the ruth- 

 less shears of the Portuguese gardener. Branches 

 of blossom, ten, fifteen, or even twenty feet 

 long, show the strength with which the plant 

 grows ; in fact, many a splendid specimen has 

 had to be sacrificed, for fear it should undermine 

 a terrace-wall or shake the very foundations of a 

 house. 



To the landscape gardener who is fastidious as to 

 the scheme of colouring in his garden, the placing 

 of all the varieties of bougainvillea (called after the 

 French navigator, De Bougainville) forms one 

 of his chief difficulties. Each in itself seems too 

 beautiful to be discarded ; but, unless the garden 

 is of considerable extent, I would recommend the 

 owner of the garden to harden his heart and make 

 his choice of the colour he prefers and stick to it, 

 only growing the one variety in some great mass, 

 be it as the gorgeous canopy of his corridor, or 

 clothing his garden-wall. 



Many persons give the palm for beauty to the 

 deep magenta variety, speciosa, as it stands alone 

 for colour. In all the kingdom of flowers I know 

 no other blossom of the same tone of colour ; it is 



