Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



In the pleasing jargon of the botanists the 

 leaves of this plant are thus described — 



" Rhomboidal-spathulate or obovate-ligulate 

 inconspicuously or irregularly fringed with 

 short subremote often clavate or capitate sub- 

 cartilaginous ciliay bright green closely imbricate 

 in a flat or discoidal sessile radical rosette 

 lasting till the appearance of the single central 

 succulent branched flower-stem." 



This will enable the reader to picture to 

 himself its appearance. 



At Seixal this unique path comes to an end. 

 Sheer clifl^s of great height bar all further 

 passage along the coast, and the traveller bent 

 on proceeding westward must either take boat, 

 or ascend to the mountain plateau above. It 

 is possible so to climb by a very rough path 

 up the west side of the vale of Seixal, a valley 

 seldom visited, but almost unrivalled in wealth 

 of vegetation and wild rocky scenery. Above 

 this gorge lies a lovely sylvan and ; park-like 

 tract with scattered timber, across which a 

 path may be followed to the far-famed water- 

 falls of Raba^al, whence one of the little ports 

 on the south coast may be reached. 



For the prolonged exploration of the high 



226 



