Observations taken at Funchal Observatory (So ft. above sea-level) in the last twenty years of the 19th century showed that the mean annual temperature is about 65° F. The mean minimum for the coldest part of the year (Oct. to May inclusive) does not fall below 55°, and the average daily variation of temperature in the same period does not exceed ro°. The mean humidity of the air is about 75 (saturation= roo). The prevalent winds are from the north or from a few points east or west of north, but these winds are much mitigated on the south coast by the central range of mountains. A hot and dry wind, the leste of the natives, occasionally blows from the east-south-east, the direction of the Sahara, and causes the hill region to be hotter than below ; but even on the coast the thermometer under its influence sometimes indicates 93°. As the thermometer has nevei been known to fall as low as 46° at Funchal, frost and snow are there wholly unknown; but snow falls on the mountains once or twice during the winter, but seldom below the altitude of 2,000 ft. Madeira has a high reputation as a health resort for persons suf fering from chest diseases and is well-known as a winter resort.
No species of land mammal is indigenous to the Ma deiras. The rabbit, black rat, brown rat and mouse have been introduced. The first corners encountered seals, and this am phibious mammal (Monaclius albiventer) still lingers at the De sertas. Amongst the many species of birds which breed in these islands only one is endemic, that is a wren (Regulus madeirensis), but five other species are known elsewhere only at the Canaries.
These are the green canary (Fringilla butyracea, the parent of the domesticated yellow variety), a chaffinch (Fringilja tintillon), a swift (Cypselus unicolor), a wood pigeon (Columba trocaz) and a petrel (Thalassidroma Bulwerii). There is also a local variety of the blackcap, distinguishable from the common kind by the exten sion in the male of the cap to the shoulder.
The only land reptile is a small lizard (Lacerta dugesii), which is destructive to the grape crop. The loggerhead turtle (Caouana caretta, Gray) is frequently captured and cooked but the soup is inferior to that made from the green turtle of the West Indies. Many kinds of fish, such as the mackerel, horse mackerel, groper, mullet, braise, etc., are caught in abundance, and afford a cheap article of diet. Several species of tunny are taken plenti fully in spring and summer, one of them sometimes attaining the weight of 300 lb. The only fresh-water fish is the common eel, which is found in one or two of the streams.
A large majority of the land shells are considered to be peculiar. Many of the species are variable in form or colour, and some have an extraordinary number of varieties. About 43 species are found both living and fossil in superficial deposits of calcareous sand in Madeira or Porto Santo. These deposits were assigned by Lyell to the Newer Pliocene period. Some species have not been hitherto discovered alive.
By the persevering researches of T. V. Wollaston the astonishing number of 695 species of beetles has been brought to light at the Madeiras. The proportion of endemic kinds is very large, and it is
remarkable that 200 of them are either wingless or their wings are so poorly developed that they cannot fly, while 23 of the endemic genera have all their species in this condition. Upward of roo moths have been collected, the majority of them being of a European stamp, but probably a fourth are peculiar to the Madeiran group. Among Neuroptera a certain number are peculiar.
The bristle-footed worms of the coast have been studied by Pro fessor P. Langerhans, a large number being new to science. There is a white stony coral allied to the red coral of the Mediterranean which would be valuable as an article of trade if it could be ob tained in sufficient quantity. Specimens of a rare and handsome red Paragorgia are in the British Museum and Liverpool Museum.
The vegetation is strongly impressed with a south European character. Many of the plants in the lower region undoubtedly were introduced and naturalized after the Portuguese colonization. A large number of the remainder are found at the Canaries and the Azores, or in one of these groups, but nowhere else. Lastly, there are about a hundred plants which are peculiarly Madeiran, either as distinct species or as strongly marked varie ties. Among the large number of ferns three are endemic species and six others belong to the peculiar flora of the North Atlantic islands. A connection between the flora of Madeira and that of the West Indies and tropical America has been inferred from the presence of six ferns found nowhere in Europe or North Africa, but existing on the islands of the east coast of America or on the Isthmus of Panama. A further relationship to that conti nent is to be traced by the presence in Madeira of the beautiful ericaceous tree Clethra arborea, belonging to a genus which is otherwise wholly American, and of a Persea, a tree laurel, also an American genus. The dragon tree (Dracaena Draco) is almost extinct. Amongst the trees most worthy of note are four of the laurel order belonging to separate genera, an Ardisia, Pittosporum, Sideroxylon, Notelaea, Rhamnus and 111yrica,—a strange mixture of genera to be found on a small Atlantic island. Two heaths of arborescent growth and a whortleberry cover large tracts on the mountains. In some parts there is a belt of the Spanish chestnut about the height of 1,5oo ft. There is no indigenous pine tree as in the Canaries; but large tracts on the hills have been planted with Pinta pinaster, from which the fuel of the inhabitants is mainly derived. Several of the native trees and shrubs now grow only in situations which are nearly inaccessible, and some of the indigenous plants are of the greatest rarity. But some plants of foreign origin have spread in a remarkable manner. Among these is the common cactus or prickly pear (Opuntia Tuna), which in many spots on the coast is sufficiently abundant to give a char acter to the landscape. The coast being rocky and the sea unquiet, the species of Algae
few and poor.