T. LOWE — -EBUITS AND VEGETABLES OP MADEIRA, ETC. 173 



confined, is a most agreeable little fruit with the flavour of the 

 Hautboy strawberry. Its cultivation is most easy, seedlings 

 coming into bearing in their third or fourth year and producing 

 afterwards unfailing and abundant crops, sometimes twice a year. 



73. Pimenta communis Lindl. The Allspice-tree is confined 

 like the last to a few gardens in Madeira about Funchal, and it 

 does not occur in either the Canaries or Cape Yerdes. It is 

 rather a handsome tree, with shining evergreen-leaves and white 

 stem and branches bearing a profusion of small white flowers in 

 terminal broad panicles, succeeded by the small pea-like fruit. 

 All parts of the plant partake of the well-known " Allspice " scent 

 and flavour of the fruit. 



74. Eugenia beasiliana (L.) The Pitanga, a pretty shrub 

 with its pendulous bright scarlet pleasantly acidulous fruit, is 

 common in Madeira, whence it has been imported to Brava in the 

 Cape Verdes. I did not meet with it, however, in the other Cape 

 Yerde islands or in the Canaries. 



75. Jambosa yulgaeis DC. This fine tree is common in Ma- 

 deira and is sometimes also seen in the Canaries, but does not 

 occur in the Cape Yerdes. Its fruit is very beautiful and has a 

 strong taste and smell of rose-water, but is somewhat dry and 

 mawkish, the thin flesh resembling that of a bad, sweet, spongy 

 apple steeped in rose-water. 



76. J. malaccensis L. Two or three trees of this occur in 

 Madeira ; but it does not exist in the Canaries or Cape Yerdes. 

 Its fine coriaceous Magnolia-like foliage and crimson flowers and 

 fruit render it a noble plant and well worth more attention. The 

 latter, of the size and shape of a moderate-sized pear, is, however, 

 in Madeira acid and austere, without any special flavour. 



G-eanatacejl. 



77. Punic a G-banatum L. The Pomegranate is often seen 

 both in gardens and seminaturalized in all the three groups of 

 islands ; but the fruit is held in no esteem, and, indeed, has little 

 to recommend it but its beauty. 



Passifloeaceje. 



78. Passifloea quadbangulabis L. A not unfrequent plant 

 in Madeira, but not seen either in the Canaries or Cape Yerdes. 

 The pale-green fruit, as large as a goose's egg, has a strong honey- 

 like flavour and is agreeable enough ; but it is not regularly or 

 abundantly ripened in Madeira. 



