4 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



some other plant for the true tobacco ; for although tobacco was subsequently extensively 

 cultivated for a number of years, it has not apparently survived as a colonist. Jones, 

 however (Proc. and Trans. Nov. Scot. Inst. Nat. Sc, 1873, p. 266), mentions that he was 

 informed that tobacco plants are sure to spring up where old stone walls are taken down. 



In the Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands, edited by General Sir J. Henry 

 Lefroy, there is early mention (p. 3) of some of the principal vegetable productions of the 

 islands, notably of the " many tall and goodly cseders, infinite store of palmitoes and 

 numbers of mulbery trees." There is also a good description of the prickly pear, and the 

 " wild olive " is frequently mentioned. Whether this was the European olive run wild, or 

 the native shrub (Forestiera porulosa) belonging to the same natural order, is uncertain. 

 Another interesting fact is the reference to the "poisonous weed" [Rhus toxicodendron~\, 

 showing that it is not a plant of recent introduction. The description of it is unmistakable. 



Between these early records and the beginning of the present century we have gleaned 

 no information of importance or interest on the vegetation of the Bermudas. Indeed, the 

 botanical history of the islands may be said to have begun in 1806, when Francois Andre 

 Michaux visited them. The American vessel in which he had taken a passage to the 

 United States for the purpose of collecting seeds of forest trees for the French Government 

 was seized by the commander of the British man-of-war " Leander," and Michaux, the only 

 passenger, was taken on board the latter vessel. She put into the Bermudas for w r ater, and 

 during her stay of a week Michaux was permitted to land ; and he took advantage 

 of the opportunity to study the vegetation, subsequently publishing 1 the results of his 

 observations, the substance of which is worth reproducing here, as the earliest notice of the 

 vegetation of the islands by a botanist. It was written on board the "Leander" on her 

 way from the Bermudas to Halifax; hence it is necessarily imperfect, and in some points 

 inaccurate. St George was the only island traversed by Michaux, and what follows relates 

 to that alone. 



Three parts of the island were covered with wood ; the rest was partly cultivated and 

 partly so ban-en as to be uncultivable. The plants natural to the country were little varied, 

 and although Michaux made only a few hasty walks, he believed that he could state with 

 some degree of certainty that the number of species did not exceed 140 or 150. " Among 

 these plants," he says, " we find several of the Old World which have not the appearance of 

 having been carried thither, such are Verbascum thapsus, Anagallis arvensis, Mercu- 

 rialis annua, Leontodon Taraxacum, Plantago major, Urtica urens, Gentiana nana, 

 Oxalis acetosella,' &c." Michaux further notes the palmetto, the poison vine, the sage- 

 bushes (Lantana spp.), a pretty verbena, and a small Medicago. The last was the commonest 



1 Notice sur les Isles Bermudes, et particulierenient sur l'lsle Saint Georges, in Annates du Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturdk, Paris, 1806, t. viii. pp. 356-364. 



2 The two last names were almost certainly written without thought, and probably for Brythraea and Oxalis 

 corniculata. 



