Fanchal and its Gardens 



upheld by rough or cemented stone walls, are 

 devoted to the operations of the fazenda — 

 the farm or vegetable garden — and chiefly 

 occupied by sugar-cane, banana trees, or vines. 

 The first step In the extension of the garden is 

 to annex a piece of the fazenda, to uproot the 

 canes or bananas, and to devote the ground 

 to the cultivation of flowers. This generally 

 necessitates the building of a flight of steps and 

 the laying out of paths. And so a new feature 

 is created, unlike anything which existed before, 

 and probably unlike anything in any other 

 garden. There are generally fresh fields waiting 

 to be conquered, and so the process goes on, 

 "as the ground invites us," until a considerable 

 garden has been created, a garden rich in variety 

 and surprise ; a garden of walls hung with 

 heliotrope and mesembryanthemum and trailing 

 geranium, of pergolas covered with roses and 

 the brilliant climbing plants of the South 

 American forests, perhaps of ponds crowded 

 with water-lily and papyrus ; a garden of fruit 

 trees, the peach, the mango, the loquat, and 

 the custard-apple ; of palms and tree-ferns, and 

 bamboos. 



Such gardens, of which there are many, have 



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