110 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



flower. Though Nature has done her best to 

 protect the plant from the hand of man, by giving 

 it long, hooked thorns, which are exceedingly 

 sharp, and, I believe, somewhat poisonous, even 

 this has not been sufficient, and many a beautiful 

 specimen have I seen maimed and dwarfed beyond 

 repair in a few hours by an ignorant and over- 

 zealous gardener. Its second enemy is rats, which 

 unfortunately have a great love for the bark 

 on the stems of old plants, and many a plant 

 narrowly escapes destruction at their hands, or 

 rather teeth. 



The second place in the list of creepers for the 

 New Year must be given to the flaming orange 

 Bignonia venusta, a native of South America, with 

 its dense clusters of finger-shaped flowers. This 

 has now become the commonest of all creepers in 

 Madeira, and there is hardly a road in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Funchal where all through the month 

 of January there is not a stretch of wall bearing 

 its gaudy burden, or a mirante (as the arbour or 

 summer-house dear to the hearts of the Portuguese 

 is called) without its roof of golden blossoms. There 

 is a long list of bignonias and tecomas a family so 

 closely allied to each other as to be almost united 

 whose full beauty is for a later season ; and only 



