72 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER 



was thirty inches ; at two feet, eight inches — eight inches only— and at three feet, twenty- 

 five inches. In other stunted individuals the stem appears conical, and sometimes as a 

 bulbous expansion close to the ground." 



Mr \V. H. Gosling, who forwarded flowers of the Sabal blackburniana to Kew, 

 through Sir J. H. Lefroy, states, in the letter accompanying them, that there is certainly 

 only one species of palm indigenous in the Bermudas. 



Dr H. J. Hinson, who sent good specimens of flower, fruit, and leaves to Kew, was 

 also of opinion that only one species grew wild in the islands ; in confirmation of which he 

 sent a leaf from a young plant raised from a seed borne by an old one, of which he sent 

 the leaves, flowers, and fruit. This leaf from the young plant had a long slender petiole. 

 The blade of the largest leaf sent from the old tree was eight feet across, and borne on a 

 petiole eight feet long ; and the inflorescence was five feet six inches long. 



But the most remarkable fact in connection with the Bermuda palm remains to be 

 explained : the wild specimens sent to Kew proved to belong to a species of palm of 

 which there is evidence that it has been cultivated in England for at- least 150 years, and 

 of which, besides numerous small ones, there is a magnificent example in the palm-house 

 at Kew, which flowers and bears fruit continuously. The origin of the cultivated palm 

 was involved in obscurity. In 1737, a small plant of it was presented by Lord Petre to 

 the grandfather of the Mr Blackburn after whom it was named in the periodical cited 

 above, where there are figures and a description of it. The earliest record of its flowering 

 in this country that we have found is 1818. Mr John Smith, ex-curator of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, to whom we are indebted for so much of the history of the cultivated palm 

 as was known, informs us that Martins saw the palm at Kew and named it Sabal umbra- 

 culifera, and Martins himself cites Sabal blackburniana as a synonym of Sabal umbra- 

 cidifera. Whether it be really so or not, the former name, as the first under the accepted 

 genus, is the one that should be retained. It is not, however, quite certain that it is the 

 same. The only West Indian specimens of the Bermuda palm in the Kew Herbarium were 

 sent by Mr Prestoe, of the Trinidad Botanic Garden, with a note to the effect that they 

 were from cultivated trees said to be of Bermudan origin ; and it is certain that the palm 

 described by Grisebach under the name of Sabal wnbracidifera in the Flora of the British 

 West Indies is not the same. In order that the species may be better understood, four 

 plates are here devoted to the illustration of the Bermuda palm. It should be mentioned 

 that Mr Prestoe states in a subsequent letter (1883) to Sir Joseph Hooker that if he wrote 

 Bermuda it must have been, he thinks, a slip of the pen — Bahamas being intended ; adding 

 that lie had never sent any specimens of Sabal wnbraculifera. But as the specimens 

 were sent fifteen years before, Mr Prestoe may very well have forgotten the circumstance. 

 They are the only specimens of the Bermuda palm in Kew Herbarium not from the 

 Bermudas, if we except those cultivated at Kew. Mr Prestoe's memorandum with the 

 specimen runs thus : — "Probably same as Sabal umbractdifera of Kew. Specimens collected 



