chap, vi.] FLOWERS. PLANTS PECULIAR TO MADEIRA, ETC. 115 



FLOWERS. 



The flowers of every country thrive carelessly in the gardens. 

 The fuchsias are formed into perpetual hedges, and horses 

 are fed with the clippings. Camellias attain the height of 

 from fifteen to twenty-five feet. A stranger being told that 

 there were fine camellias grown at the Palheiro, went up 

 there for the purpose of seeing them, but sought them in 

 vain, and was coming away disappointed, when it was hinted 

 to him to look up, and there, far out of reach, he saw the 

 wax-like flowers of purest white and darkest scarlet. Myrtle 

 trees are to be seen, which are more than three feet in cir- 

 cumference, and the Urze grows to a similar size. The 

 Magnolia, the Solandra, the Datura, the Judas tree, the 

 Spike Coral, the Turpentine tree, the Camphor laurel, seve- 

 ral varieties of Acacia, the Eucalyptus and the Strelitzia, the 

 Justicia, the Crista Galli (Erythrina), the Oleander, the Eu- 

 phorbia, the Hibiscus, and many other beautiful flowering 

 shrubs, are amongst the ornaments of a Madeira garden. 



PLANTS PECULIAR TO MADEIRA. 



Humboldt says, that " though the whole archipelago con- 

 tains several plants found in Portugal, in Spain, at the Azores, 

 and in the north-west of Africa, a great number of species, 

 and even genera, are peculiar to Teneriffe, to Porto Santo, 

 and Madeira. Such are the Mocanera, the Plocama, the 

 Bosea, the Canarina, and the Drusa." 



BIRDS. 



The birds of Madeira are less numerous than might be 

 expected in so genial a climate, and most of them, where they 

 differ from European species, are merely varieties. 



