Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



said that it is the right thing in the right 

 place. Each is appropriate to the position 

 it occupies, to the house of which it is the 

 pleasure ground ; there is no straining after 

 unnatural effect; no "laying-out" by a land- 

 scape gardener with theories to illustrate. 



With the ancient contest between the 

 "formalist" and the "naturalist" we have 

 little concern. The gardens are one and all 

 of necessity formal ; the retaining wall insures 

 that. They are also, judged by an English 

 standard, quite small ; and ground is too valu- 

 able, and the result too poor, to induce the 

 wise man to try for large stretches of lawn. 

 " Naturalization " is quite out of place where 

 the soil has to be held in terraces. Where it 

 is appropriate, as on the rocky cliffs of ravines, 

 which sometimes serve as boundaries of gardens, 

 it may be eminently successful. In such situa- 

 tions aloes, and cactus, and "Pride of Madeira," 

 and valerian, and heliotrope will clothe the rocks 

 with wild luxuriance, and fight a desperate 

 struggle for the mastery. A charming effect of 

 this sort may be seen at the Quinta Palmeira, 

 which lies behind the town, bowered in its 

 ancient trees, some seven hundred feet above 



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