Funchal and its Gardens 



are coming out ; for the pretty lilac jimbriata 

 we must wait a little, but the white stylosa, 

 which I brought from England last year, is 

 flowering already. Some of the roses are 

 making a great show. Begonias of various 

 kinds are in perfection. The fine orange Strep- 

 tosoleUy introduced by an English lady a few 

 years ago, and now pervading every garden, 

 and intent on being naturalized as Madeiran, 

 vies in colour with the Bignonia. A few stray 

 sweet peas are in flower, but for the produce of 

 the seeds we sent out in October we must wait 

 a little longer. Comparable in colour efi^ect 

 even with the brighter flowers is the foliage of 

 the AcaUipha^ with its bizarre combination of 

 green and red and bronze and pink. In our 

 garden it seems to flourish unusually, growing 

 into a big shrub eight or ten feet high. With 

 these and many others the most exacting lover 

 of garden colour has no cause to grumble ; and 

 if we grow surfeited with these, the ordinary 

 fare of gardens here, we may find in the culture 

 of ferns, orchids, rock-plants, or other byeways 

 of horticulture, innumerable points of interest. 

 Or, if our turn of mind is practical, we may set 

 ourselves to the improvement of the peas, 



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