PART v. VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE. 51 



PART V. 



GENERAL RESULTS FOR VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE 

 IN MADEIRA. 



FOR any average country near latitude 32 or 33, and in 

 proximity to either the Mediterranean or North Africa, 

 what is there usually considered more characteristic of 

 its vegetation, than to speak of it as a land where, under 

 good government, every poor man lives under his own 

 vine and his own fig-tree ? The phrase has applied to 

 Palestine for 3000 years, but fails at once in Madeira ; 

 where we should rather say, that every happy cottager 

 lives under his own banana, and his own pumpkin, 

 trellised after vine-fashion. 



Grape vines do of course grow in Madeira, and the 

 wine made therefrom has had a great name for a couple 

 of centuries ; but not from the time of the island's 

 earliest history, as testified by her heraldic shield of 

 arms, wherein her first and best agriculture is typified by 

 five sugar loaves ; and the sugar-cane, with its wealth of 

 sedgy, bright green leaves, is evidently a far more appro- 

 priate production for her moisture-laden atmosphere than 



