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



" Native Ebony." 



This tree appears to be quite extinct in the island, and probably no longer exists under 

 cultivation. In Burchell's time it grew in the localities named above, and, according to bis 

 notes in Kew library, in a few others. 



" This plant I believe to be now extinct. It formerly grew on tbe outer portions of tbe 

 island near the coast, at altitudes of 1000 to 2000 feet, where tbe weatberbeaten stems are 

 still found deeply embedded in tbe surface soil. Tbe last plant I saw was a small one 

 growing in the garden at Oakbank about twenty-five years ago, but it is not tbere now, 

 and I have in vain searcbed tbe wbole island over for another. The leaves were dark-green, 

 and the flowers white ; tbe wood is very bard, heavy, black in colour, and extremely brittle. 

 It is still collected and turned into ornaments, which are mucb prized on account of its 

 rarity. That this tree once formed a considerable portion of tbe vegetation, clothing the 

 island on those parts tbat are now quite barren, is strongly evidenced by tbe many 

 references to it in the local records." — Melliss. 



Roxburgh mentions that he saw tbe ebony in two gardens only, where it had in many 

 years grown to tbe height of only two or three feet, with many longer branches spreading 

 flat on tbe ground, well decorated with abundance of foliage and large handsome flowers. 



Melhania erythroxylon, Ait. 



Melhania erythroxylon, Ait., Hort. Kew., ed. 2, iv. p. 146; Melliss, St Hel., p. 245, t. 28. 

 Pentapetes erythroxylon, Forst. in Comment. Soc. Gcett., ix., reprint, p. 51; Ait., Hort. Kew, ed. 1, 



ii. p. 438. 

 Dombeya erythroxylon, "Willd., Sp. PI., iii. p. 725; Eoxb. in Beatson's St Helena Tracts, p. 300. 

 Alcea arborea populi, &c, Pluk., Almag. Mant., p. G, et Amalth., t. 333, fig. 1. 

 Trochctia erythroxylon, Benth. et. Hook, f., Geu. Plant., i. p. 222. 



St Helena. — Endemic. Longwood — Burchell; Shuter ; without locality — Bennett; 



Haugkton ; Lefroy; Central Range — Morris, in 1883. 



"Redwood." 



This beautiful tree must soon share the fate of its congener. Melliss says — " One or 

 two specimens still remain growing amongst the cabbage-trees, ferns, and other native 

 plants in the glens near Diana's Peak and High Peak at 2500 feet. It is, however, very 

 quickly disappearing, and ere long will probably become altogether extinct. Some culti- 

 vated specimens exist in gardens as low down as 1850 feet; but altogether not more than 

 seventeen or eighteen plants are now to be found in the island ; namely, two at Amos 

 \ ale, one at Oakbank, three or four at Bowers's and Saudy Bay, two at Sam. Alexander's, 

 one at Southen's, six or eight young trees at the Hermitage, one at Diana's Peak, and one 

 at High Peak." From Burchell's manuscript we learn that it must have been tolerably 

 plentiful in 1810 ; and Roxburgh states tbat in 1814 it still furnished the islanders with 

 a hard, close-grained, mahogany-coloured, durable wood. 



