98 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL 



you may often walk from one vintner's cottage to 

 another. In the warm climate of the island, the 

 bare black basaltic soil of which imbibes much 

 warmth, and reflects it upon the vines, this mode 

 of cultivation seems to be particularly suitable ; 

 whereas it is less successful in colder countries. 

 Thus, for instance, in some parts of Italy, the vine- 

 arbours Qpergole) do not bear so well as those 

 plants that are wreathed round poles. The vine 

 is cultivated from the sea-coast up to two-flfths of 

 the elevation of the island. The annual produce 

 is estimated at from twenty- five to thirty thousand 

 pipes. The best wine is called malmsey, and is 

 made from a vine which came from Greece. 



If our visit to the island had not been limited to 

 a single day, we might, perhaps, have been able to 

 add several interesting particulars respecting its 

 original vegetation, to the excellent observations 

 which Von Buch* has published on the Flora of 

 the Canary Islands, and which might serve as a 

 model for all future investigations into the vegeta- 

 tion of islands in general. The present state of 

 Madeira does not allow us to form perfectly accu- 

 rate ideas respecting its original vegetation. When 

 Zarco, the discoverer, first viewed the island from 

 Porto Santo, it was covered, from the sea-shore to 

 the top of the highest summits, with almost impene- 

 trable forests, which were not destroyed till after 



* In the Essays of the Berlin Academy, 1816 and 1817, 

 p. 337. 



