CREEPERS 109 



a thing apart, this royal purple flower. No one 

 who has seen the plant which covers the cliff below 

 the fort can ever forget its beauty. Seen from 

 the sea, it stands out like a purple rock in the 

 middle of the city. By the middle of January 

 it will be in all its gaudy, garish splendour, the 

 admired of all beholders. 



It can well be imagined how these two varieties 

 the one brick-red, the other deep magenta would 

 strike a jarring note in any garden if grow r n side by 

 side, or even within sight of each other. And do 

 not imagine that Madeira only boasts of these two 

 coloured bougainvilleas in its winter season. From 

 these two have sprung many others seedlings, no 

 doubt, hybridized in a country where the heat of 

 the sun will ripen most seeds. So now there are 

 rosy reds, lighter or darker, to choose from, shading 

 through a range of colour which, like the beauty of 

 its parents, seems to stand alone. 



The plant has, I consider, two enemies in the 

 island. One is the ordinary uneducated Portuguese 

 gardener, who seems to think that the art of garden- 

 ing consists in so closely pruning a creeper or shrub 

 that all the natural grace and beauty of the plant is 

 lost for ever, as often as not choosing the moment 

 for this cruel treatment when the plant is in full 



