REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 3 



saved their carpenter's tools from the wreck, they built a bark, presumably of the cedar- 

 wood, " of some eighteen tun," wherewith they left the islands, after a sojourn of five 

 months. May also states that there were hogs in the south part ; but they were so lean, 

 " by reason the island is so barren," that they could not eat them. Fresh water could only 

 be procured by digging. Unfortunately our author does not mention how they subsisted 

 during the five months they (twenty-six in number) lived there, though chiefly, no doubt, 

 on the " fish, fowl, and tortoise, of which there was good store." 



Onr next source of information is S. Jourdan, 1 who was on board the " Sea Venture," 

 commanded by Sir George Sommers, which was wrecked on the coast of the Bermudas in 

 1609. At that date the hogs were so abundant that Sir George Sommers killed thirty-two 

 on one hunting excursion. Hence it would appear that the islands must have been excep- 

 tionally bare of herbage when May was there. Eespecting the vegetable productions of 

 the country, Jourdan is more explicit than May, and we are able from his account to recog- 

 nise several of the elements of the present flora. After descanting on the abundance and 

 good cpiality of the animal food afforded by the islands, he proceeds : " The country yeeldeth 

 divers fruits, as prickled peares [Opuntia spp.] in great abundance, which continue greene 

 upon the trees all the yeare ; also great plenty of mulberries [Conocarpus erectus?~], white 

 and red ; and on the same are great store of silke-wormes [these turned out to be spiders], 

 which yeelde tods of silke, both white and yellow, being some course and some fine. And 

 there is a tree called a palmito tree [Sabal blackburniana] which hath a very sweete berry, 

 upon which the hogs doe most feede ; but our men finding the sweetnesse of them, did 

 willingly share with the hogs for them, they being very pleasant and wholsome, which 

 made them carelesse almost of any bread with their meate ; which occasioned us to carry 

 in a manner all that store of flower and meale we did or could save for Virginia. The 

 head of the palmito tree is very good meate, either raw or sodden. It yeeldeth a head 

 which weigheth about twenty pounds, and is farre better meate then any cabbidge. There 

 are an infinite number of cedar trees [Juniperus bermudiana~\ (the fairest I thinke in the 

 world), and those bring forth a very sweet berry and wholsom to eate. The country (for 

 as much as I could find myself, or heare by others) affords no venimous creature or so much 

 as a rat or a mouse, or anything unwholesome." 



The foregoing extract establishes some interesting facts concerning the presence and 

 preponderance at that date of four or five plants, namely, Conocarpus, Opuntia, Juniperus, 

 and Sabal, which still constitute the more conspicuous features of the vegetation. 



Jourdan also alludes to the protection afforded by trees to shipping in a harbour entered 

 from the south-east side. Farther on he says that he had almost omitted through forget- 

 fulness to mention that they found very good tobacco. We can only suppose that he mistook 



1 A Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the Isle of Divels, by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George 

 Sommers, and Captayne Newport, with divers others. Set forth for the love of my Country and also for the 

 good of the Plantation in Virginia. Sib Jourdan. London, 1610. Haktuyt's Coll., vol. v. p. 551. 



