Tierno (João)
João Tierno, livestock superintendent in Funchal, whose 1897 veterinary report on Madeira is criticised for botanical errors and unverifiable weather data.
He was livestock intendant (intendente de pecuária) in Funchal, and in 1897 he published, in the Boletim da Direcção Geral de Agricultura, 6th year, no. 11, a work entitled Relatório do Veterinário do Funchal, in which he presents some meteorological, geological and botanical data, taken largely from the Portuguese and foreign works that deal with Madeira. In its distribution of plants by zones, the work contains errors that are hard to explain: it even names the folhadeiro as a characteristic species of the high Madeiran summits, when that species certainly does not grow beyond the interior valleys and is very common in the parish (freguesia) of Camacha. The meteorological observations that Mr Tierno reports as having been made at the shelter houses of Serra do Faial, Vale da Lapa and the Paul da Serra from 1888 to 1890 appear in no record whatsoever, and the keepers of those houses have told us that they knew nothing of them, which we find extraordinary. (1921)
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 05
- Camacha
Santa Cruz. Parish where the folhadeiro is very common.
Camacha is an upland parish above Caniço in Santa Cruz municipality, founded in 1676 with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel. The Elucidário covers its church, role in the 1828 Miguelist invasion, quintas, levadas, the Poiso shelter house, its Pentecost pilgrimage, women's padded skirts, its plants and gardens, and its famous wickerwork industry started by Hinton.
- Funchal
Where Tierno served.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Paul da Serra
Ponta do Sol. Site of a shelter house where Tierno claimed observations.
The Paul da Serra is the only extensive plateau on Madeira, lying at about 1,500 m across four municipalities, where temperatures can fall to freezing. The Rabaçal and Risco springs, the Ribeira da Tabua and the Ribeira da Janela rise at its edges, and it feeds the main levadas. The Elucidário records its vegetation, agricultural trials, shelter houses, sheep-shearing gatherings, common-land use and an unfinished road project.
- Serra do Faial
Santana. Site of a shelter house where Tierno claimed observations.
The Serra do Faial is the upland of Faial parish, the site of a state-owned levada and of the locality Passada da Novilha. It is named in the poem Origem da Ilha da Madeira as the place of the poet's inspiration, and João Tierno claimed observations from a shelter house there.
- Vale da Lapa
Santana. Site of a shelter house where Tierno claimed observations.
Site of a shelter house where Tierno claimed observations.
People
People mentioned · 01-
Livestock superintendent (veterinarian) in Funchal who published a report in 1897 criticised by the Elucidário.