Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/70

50 find mere genuine kindness, hospitality, or courtesy. Their houses, their villas, their horses, their flowers, their time, all are placed, not figuratively, but really, ' a vuestra disposicion.' Some of the villas in the neighbourhood are lovely, especially those of Madame de H ——, the Marquise L —— &c. Here one finds all kinds of tropical vegetation: the date-palm, the banana, the plantain and Indian-rubber trees, sugar, cotton, and other Oriental products, all grow luxuriantly; while the beds are filled with masses of violets, tulips, roses, arums, scarlet hybiscus, and geraniums; and beautiful jessamine, scarlet passion-flowers, and other creepers, trail over every wall.

But the chief interest to the winter resident at Malaga will be derived from its charitable institutions. The French sisters of charity of St. Vincent de Paul have the care of three large establishments here. One—an industrial school for the children and orphans connected with a neighbouring factory—is a marvel of beauty, order, and good management. The girls are taught every kind of industrial work ; a Belgian has been imported to give them instruction in making Valenciennes lace, and their needlework is the most beautiful to be seen out of Paris. Any profit arising from their work is sold, and kept for their