REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. 33 



smaller than St Helena, and 600 miles north-west of it. St Helena has been called a 

 barren rock, but it is a paradise as compared with Ascension, which consists of a scorched 

 mass of volcanic matter, in part resembling bottle-glass, and in part coke and cinders. A 

 small green peak, 2S00 feet above the sea, monopolises nearly all the vegetation, which 

 consists of Purslane, a grass, and a Euphorbia in the lower parts of the island, whilst the 

 green peak is clothed with a carpet of ferns, and here and there a shrub, allied to, but 

 different from any St Helena one. 1 There are nine ferns, of which no less than six differ 

 from those of St Helena, and three 2 of them are entirely confined to the islet." 



A number of exotic plants have become naturalised in Ascension, and ,«ome of them 

 are more prominent than the native plants. A. Richard 3 enumerates about twenty-five, but 

 'many of them were probably found only in cultivated ground. Excluding the probably 

 introduced species contained in the following enumeration, a few others are more or less 

 fully established, among them Senebiera didyma, Oxalis corniculata, Urena lobata, 

 Ageratum conyzoides, Solanum nigrum, Physalis, sp., and Plantago lanceolate/. Richard 

 states that the Physalis covered all the higher parts of the island, and the fruit was much 

 sought after by the inhabitants. 



Previously to 1815 Ascension was uninhabited, but from that date there has always 

 been a small population, and more or less cultivation. It was not, however, till 1857 

 that serious steps were taken to test the cultural capabilities of the island. A skilled 

 gardener superintended the operations, and his success, in spite of droughts, was greater 

 than had been anticipated. Planting was extensively carried out, and, as we learn from 

 reports by Captain Barnard in 1862 and 1864, considerable numbers of a variety of 

 trees and shrubs were in a flourishing condition, and many of the ravines were clothed 

 with blackberry, furze, and other shrubs. In certain parts the soil was of sufficient 

 depth and fertility to yield good crops ; but we are not aware that any discoveries were 

 made that would prove that there was ever a more varied and luxuriant indigenous 

 vegetation. In consequence partly of the diversion of the ocean traffic through the Suez 

 Canal, the importance of the island has decreased, and in consequence there is now little 

 cultivation. 



On the Community of Origin of the Plants of Ascension and St Helena. 



As Wallace says in his Island Life, it is much more philosophical to assume a 

 common orio-in of the organisms of remote countries than to try to prove a former direct 

 connection between them. There is little, indeed, in the following enumeration to suggest 

 either ; but the slight evidence offered below of three plants, supposed to be endemic in St 



1 It should be mentioned that Hedyotis adscensionis is more nearly related to African and Asiatic species 

 than it is to the St Helena Hedyotis arborea. 



2 That is, if we regard Pteris flabellata /? asctmsionis as a distinct species. 



3 Sertum Astrolabianum, pp. 54-56, 1834. 



(bot. chaix. exp.— part ii.— 1884.) B 5 



