56 MADEIRA METEOROLOGIC. PARTY. 



amount of subdued, secondary light from thin, fleeting, 

 solar-illumined clouds, rather than from the burning sun 

 direct ; and its air, always well charged with the invisible 

 water- vapour which delicate plants love so well, has 

 been called " The Ocean Flower," and still more endear- 

 ingly " The Paradise of Flowers," 



"The paradise of flowers, their native land is here, 

 Where laugh the rosy hours, and sunlight robes the year ; 

 Soft breathing eve and morn their cups with nectar fill, 

 New buds each instant born, drink sun and dew at will ; " 



and so the island poet proceeds almost ad infinitum. 



But now it is time to put in a word of plain prose, 

 touching the practical use of this most flowery island, 

 both to the world in general, and Great Britain in parti- 

 cular. For as to its first and chief duty of contributing 

 to the exchequer of its suzerain country, Portugal, 1 and 

 furnishing Lisbon with never-ending supplies of bananas 

 and wicker-work easy chairs, all that of course goes on 

 in the most exemplary manner, and is no business of 

 mine to inquire into. 



As a coaling-station, then, for ocean steamers of all 

 peoples, Madeira is pre-eminent ; safer of approach than 

 the other more numerously-grouped East Atlantic Isles 

 of either Canaria, Cape Verde, or the Azores ; and happy 



1 To whom, we feel sure, it owes its admirable system of Levadas, or 

 watercourses, which flood every garden once a fortnight through the sum- 

 mer ; and its coat-of-mail method of paving with little stones every street, 

 road, and garden path, either in or around the chief city, and thereby keep- 

 ing them free from dust, and immediately dry after the heaviest rains. 



