REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 71 



}-ou some leaves of the plants which I sketched, aud also a couple of small leaves which I 

 procured yesterday. I found tbem on the top of a high hill, and although there is not 

 much apparent difference in the leaf, yet it is different in the manner of its growth, as it 

 springs from the ground without any apparent stem. The people in the neighbourhood 

 have never seen it bear flowers or fruit. It may be the dwarf palmetto : you mention. 

 And now to answer your inquiries as well as I am able. 



" 1. The height of the common palmetto varies from five to twenty feet in good 

 ground ; in the marshes it grows from thirty-five to forty feet. Its circumference varies 

 with its locality. In the good soil it attains from forty to fifty inches ; in the marshes 

 sixteen to twenty inches. 



" 2. Breadth of leaf, six to eight feet. 



" 3. Length of leaf-stalk, three to seven feet and a half. 



"4. It is wild in many parts of the islands and on the islets where there are no 

 inhabitants, and would appear to have sprung up spontaneously. 



" 5. This is the only palmetto which bears a fruit. We know of but one sort, the 

 small black berry, of which Dr Hinson will send you samples when they are ripe. There 

 can be, I think, no doubt that it is indigenous. The fact that it was known to the earliest 

 settlers, and its leaves used for covering houses, churches, &c, and that it had a com- 

 mercial value long before the establishment of any communication with the West Indies, 

 would, I think, be sufficient proof. 



" I have already mentioned the small kind I found yesterday. It was growing in a 

 poor soil on the top, or nearly so, of a high hill. I noticed a few more scattered about, 

 quite stunted or dwarf." 



Mr Oswald A. Eeade sent the following reply to Sir Joseph Hooker's inquiries con- 

 cerning the palm or palms indigenous in the islands : — 



" The so-called dwarf palmetto (Chamcerops glabra of General Lefroy's list) grows on 

 dry hills and in very shallow soil. It is plentiful to the left of the entrance to Hamilton 

 Harbour. I have examined it carefully, comparing measurements of leaves, segments, &c, 

 but I could detect no specific difference between this and the common palmetto. In many 

 individuals the stem is wanting ; in others a small stem has apparently been the result of 

 many years' growth, evidenced by the extreme roughness of trunk, hourglass contractions, 

 and decay ; while near cultivated ground it gradually merges imperceptibly into the larger 

 palm. On the shallow, rocky soil the leaves assume a yellowish hue, and in none of the 

 dwarf specimens could I find evidence of a spadix, even on those whose decayed but short 

 trunks gave signs of considerable age. The hourglass contractions mentioned above are 

 very curious ; in one which I measured, the circumference at one foot from the ground 



1 Sir J. H. Lefroy and others distinguished a dwarf palmetto, differing from the ordinary one in having no 

 trunk. This is no doubt the Sabal Uackbumiana in a young state. Many palms are years before they begin 

 to form a trunk. 



