632 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 



the lands might allow to run loose and feed on the fallen figs, but 

 beating off the figs with sticks, and cutting and pruning the trees, 

 were forbidden. This indicates that figs were one of the principal 

 sources of food to fatten the hogs at that time. 



At present figs are by no means abundant, though wild trees are 

 often seen in waste places and in the woods, where they look as if 

 they had grown spontaneously. 



These figs must have belonged to a variety that is capable of self- 

 fertilization, like those now grown in the West Indies, and not to 

 the choice Smyrna variety, which requires caprification. There is 

 no evidence that the practice of caprification has ever been tried in 

 the Bermudas. But there seems to be no reason why Smyrna figs 

 should not be introduced, and also the caprifying insects, for they 

 have succeeded in doing so in California. 



Olive Tree. (Oka Europwa, Linne.) 



Plate LX1X. 



Wild Olives were not mentioned by members of Sir George 

 Somers' party, in 1610, as growing on the islands. 



But in Governor Moore's report or letter of 1612, he says : " Alsoe 

 we have olives grow with us, but no great store." 



Governor Butler, in the early part of his "Historye" (1619), dis- 

 tinctly stated that there were wild olive trees when the islands were 

 first inhabited. He had with him there, when he wrote his work, 

 some of Somers' shipwrecked party, including Christopher Carter, 

 who had remained on the islands for the three years subsequent to 

 the wreck (1609-1612), and before the settlement, so that he had 

 opportunities to know the original productions of the islands better 

 than any one else, except his two companions. But it has been 

 doubted whether these accounts refer to the true Old World olive, 

 for there is a native shrub of the same family (Forestiera porulosa) 

 which slightly resembles the real olive, but produces a very inferior 

 fruit. (See p. 620.) 



It seems to me probable that men as well informed as Governor 

 Butler and his companions, and as well acquainted with olives as they 

 must have been, would not have made such a mistake. It is more 

 likely that the olive trees, like the wild hogs, had been introduced 

 there in small numbers, some years previously, by the Spanish pirates 

 or buccaneers, either accidentally or intentionally, by planting seeds. 

 It is even possible that the Spanish crew wrecked there with Henry 

 May, in 1598, may have saved olives from the wreck with their other 



