cjuce the best Madeira wine, or that made in the southern part of
the island, which is principally indebted for its flavour to the two
letter. The tinta, when separated, produces a wine closely resembling
Burgundy, in colour and flavour, when new, but much
softer; becoming very like tawny port after it has been about two
years in the cask; and not distinguishable, either in colour or
flavour, from rich old Madeira, at the end of twenty years. It is
the only red wine made in the island, and is suffered to ferment
with the husks of the fruit remaining in it, to fix the colour. It
would retain the character of Burgundy longer, were it bottled
earlier, but then there is the probability of its acquiring a bad
flavour from the sediment. The paler vines, such as the pure
verdelho or north wine, acquire an amber hue with age ; whereas,
those whose husks impart some portion of colour to the juice
during pressure, grow lighter with age. The sercial0 is said to be
the hock grape, brought from Europe; this I cannot speak to,
having no description of the hock grape, but it strikes me, that
although the sercial is a dry wine, it is very unlike hock of an age
rounded; it is slightly downy at the back, (the nerves strong and projecting) and of
a dark yellow green, inclining a little to red at th© base. The bastardo leaf is
rounder than most others; its lobes are indistinctly marked, and the dentations are
large and sharp; it is of a light yellow green, downy at the back, and the whole
assumes a cockled appearance. Four of the sinuses of the bual leaf are very deep
and sharp; the two lower are indistinct; the dentations are sharp and irregular; the
leaf is hairy on both sides. There are two varieties of tinta, the largest has seven
lobes, decreasing in size, and the sinuses very deep and rounded; the middle lobe
is subdivided into two others, both indistinct; the smaller is of a more compact form,
and the lower sinuses much less deep than the others;. both are of a dark green with
purple spots, and downy at the back.
° The leaf of the sercial has four rounded sinuses ; the nerves are very strong, and
by their projections give a cockled appearance, to the leaf; it is of a very yellow
green, and cottony on both sides, It is said to grow best under precipices, in places
which attract the clouds, and as the husk is very thick, is left longer than the others
to ripen.
to be transported. There are at least three qualities of Malmsey:
the cadel or candy p is the best, but produces little; the babosa
and malvazion yield pretty abundantly, but the latter is very
inferior’. The fermentation of malmsey is checked earlier than
that of the other wines, to increase its sweetness.
The best soil for the vine is saibro, or an equal mixture of
saibro and pedra molle, or of the red and yellow tufa; the latter,
from its lightness and looseness would be washed away by the
rains, were it not mixed with some other soil. Equal portions of
saibro, pedra molle, and massapes, which is a clayey earth, seem
to be preferred in very dry situations, and I have seen layers of
pedra molle alone, about the roots of tlie vines, in unusually moist
localitiesr. Of course the poorer cultivators are compelled to be
content with the soil they find upon the spot, but when this
p The leaf of this has four very deep and rounded sinuses, with two others less
distinct; each dentation has a small yellow tip ; the back of the leaf is as smooth as
the upper surface, and it is of a deep yellow green; the other varieties are less
marked, but all have the same smoothness and yellow tips. It was introduced from
Candia; before 1445, by Prince Hairy. CoUeg&o de Noticias, p. 11.
| The vine was tried in the island of St. Thomas, on the coast of Africa, before
1550 ' but, although.,two crops were produced,-.it. did not succeed, as it was concluded,
from “ the gross richness of the soil.” The figs became delicious, and
yielded two crops a year; the melons only one; olive, peach, almond, and other
stone-fruit trees were introduced from Spain, but although they grew beautifully, and
to a very large size, they never yielded any fruit, Navegafao de Lisboa a Mut de
S. Thome, escrita por hum Piloto Portuguese, (in 1551.) Collegao, p. 99.
r I analyzed the saibro carefully, and found 46.8 silex; 9.1 alumine; 27.3 oxide of
iron, 2.7 soda; 3.8 water; 10.3 loss (principally vegetable matter), at a red heat in
a platina crucible. The casealha, a decomposing basaltic conglomerate (partially
deposited above the compact or columnar), is esteemed next to the saibro and pedra
molle; this is the heaviest soil, the specific gravity being 2.1. The barros (a coarser
and less pure kind of clay than the massapes), and marracote, a drier kind of barros,
are the least welcome soils a vine cultivator can find on his tract. The pedra mode
seems to contain less soda, as well as less iron, than the saibro, which is of a lower
specific gravity. Saibro, 1.75; pedra molle, 1.95; massapes, 1.99 ; araya, 1.99.