116 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



districts and as a cultivated form, and is never seen 

 clambering from tree to tree in a wild state, like 

 the chinensis variety. The wistaria season closes as 

 well as opens with a white-flowered form both in 

 Japan and Madeira, as the variety known as macro- 

 botrys, with its very long racemes of white blossoms, 

 prolongs the beauty of the fuji feast at the cele- 

 brated Kameido Temple ; and here in Madeira, 

 though only one or two plants of it exist, it is the 

 last to retain its beauty. 



The summer months will have their own creepers, 

 though not such showy ones as the winter and 

 spring months ; but if they are lacking in colour, 

 many of them atone for that by their delicious 

 fragrance. To these belong Rhyncospermum jas- 

 minoides, or Trachelospermum, as I believe it is 

 more correctly called, whose white starry flowers 

 fill the whole air with their almost overpower- 

 ing scent. The plant is a native of China and 

 Japan, where it may be seen growing in a per- 

 fectly wild state in hedgerows. There is another 

 variety called angustifolium whose blossoms are 

 much the same, but the foliage differs, and this 

 kind is said to prove hardy when grown against a 

 wall in the South of England. The well-known 

 Stephanotis floribunda, called in its native country 



