A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 595 



In winter, most of the older leaves turn yellow and die, and they 

 are often much damaged by the violent winds, especially when in 

 exposed places, near the shore. It is of slow growth, like many 

 other palms. 



The early settlers all considered it an exceedingly valuable and 

 useful tree. Admiral Somers' party and the early colonists used 

 large quantities of the berries for food, in their season. The wild 

 hogs fattened upon them, and so did the domesticated hogs that 

 were very soon introduced there. Large numbers of the trees were 

 cut down, at first, for the soft head or cabbage, which, like that of 

 the Cabbage-Palm, is edible and nutritious when boiled. 



A little later the natives learned to make an intoxicating liquor 

 called "bibby" or " beeby," from the fermented sweet sap and pulp 

 of the interior, and they cut down large numbers of the best trees 

 for this purpose. 



The leaves, in early times, and for more than sixty years later, 

 were extensively used for thatching the roofs and the sides of dwell- 

 ings, and of the first churches. At the present time they are still used 

 for the manufacture of hats, fans, and baskets, and sometimes for 

 braiding various fancy articles. 



When the islands were first settled the Palmetto was very abun- 

 dant, according to the earliest writers, and it seems that it grew to 

 a much greater size than it does at present. 



Cutting the trees down for their heads to cook, and for the sap to 

 make " bibby," led to the destruction of most of the larger trees in 

 less than thirty years. 



In the narrative [1610) of William Strachy, who was one of 

 Admiral Somers' shipwrecked party, the following account of the 

 Palmetto appears: "Likewise there grow great store of Palme 

 Trees"; . . . "in growth, fashion, leaves and branches, resembling 

 those true Palmes ; for the tree is high and straight, sappy and 

 spongious, unfirm for any use, no branches but in the uppermost 

 part thereof, and in the top grow leaves about the head of it, the 

 most inmost part whereof they call Palmeto, and it is the heart and 

 pith of the same Trunke, so white and thin, as it will peele off into 

 fleaks as smooth and delicate as white Satin, into twentie folds (in 

 which a man may write as in paper) where they spread and fall 

 downward about the Tree like an overblown Rose, or Saffron flower 

 not early gathered." . . . "With these leaves we thatched our 

 Cabbins, and roasting the Palmito, or soft top thereof, they had a 

 taste like fried melons, and being sod they eate like Cabbedges, but 



