REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 5 



plant in the country, each plant occupying scarcely a square inch of ground ; but they 

 were so numerous tbat they completely carpeted the surface in many places, grasses being 

 almost entirely absent. 



It is interesting to read what he has to say concerning the cedar (Juniperus) at that 

 date. The islands, he says, were covered with it, growing in all kinds of soils and 

 situations, but most vigorously in the valleys, where it attained a height of 40 to 50 feet, 

 with a trunk up to 15 inches in diameter. On the heights and in places where it had 

 been cut down, it was springing up again spontaneously. 



One more fact in connection with this date is worth mentioning : according to Michaux, 

 the flourishing agriculture of earlier times had dwindled down to nothing. 



Present Condition of the Vegetation. 



With the exception of a few odd specimens preserved in the Sloane Collection ' at the 

 British Museum, the following enumeration of the plants of the Bermudas is entirely based 

 upon specimens and data collected within the last forty or fifty years. The plants in the 

 Sloane Herbarium were collected by a Mr John Dickinson, 2 and originally belonged, it would 

 seem, to Petiver, who presented them to Plukenet, and through him they came into the 

 possession of Sloane. They are — Triumfetta lappula, Melilotus parviflora, Conocarpus 

 erectus, Eupatorium rnacrophyllum, Erigeron canadense, Erigeron linifolius, Erigeron 

 darrellianus, Verbena urticcefolia, Euphorbia buxifolia, Myrica cerifera, Sisyrinchium 

 bermudiana, and Carex bermudiana. The last-named plant, which appears to be endemic 

 in the islands, we have seen from no other source ; Erigeron darrellianus is also apparently 

 endemic, and, like the Carex, had lain undetermined until we described it. 



The modern collections to which we have had access are, if we except a few flowering 

 plants sent by Sir W. J. Reid, the Rev. C. J. Johns, and Mr J. F. Holton, and a few ferns 

 by Mr Farlow, only three in number. First, a collection made by A. W. Lane, Esq., before 

 1845, a set of which was acquired by the late Sir William Hooker, and is now in the 

 National Collection at Kew. Among other documents relating to the flora of the Bermudas 

 for which we are indebted to Sir J. H. Lefroy is a copy of a List of the Native Plants of 

 Bermuda, compiled by A. W. Lane, Esq., of H.M.S. "Illustrious," and presented to the 

 Bermuda Library by Sir W. J. Eeid, 8th July 1845. This list includes 127 species, a large 

 proportion of which we regard as indigenous. The set at Kew is not quite complete. 

 Secondly, there are the plants collected from time to time by Sir J. H. Lefroy, and sent to 

 Kew for identification. These are numerous, as the frequent recurrence of his name in the 

 enumeration testifies ; and they embrace several species not sent by any other collector, and 



1 We have to thank Mr Carruthers and Mr Britten, of the British Museum, for the great trouble they have 

 taken in searching the volumes of the Sloane Herbarium for plants coming within the scope of this work. 



2 Petiver in his Musei Petiveriani, Centuria Octava, p. 80, alludes to him as follows : " To Mr John 

 Dickinson I am obliged for some plants he lately sent me from Bermudas (besides other collections some years 

 ago), with assurances of larger performances." 



