1898] lOI 



VEGETATATION IN THE BEMUDAS.— Part. I. TREES 



By H. B. Small, Esq., Ottawa, Canaba. 



Bermuda, locally called the " Land of the Lily and the 

 Rose," presents an aspect of shelving cedar, sloping hills green 

 with verdure, and shimmering under a southern sun, with a 

 misty haze of violet hovering over all. For the horizon there 

 is a sea of emerald hue, shading at times to turquoise blue> 

 whilst purple patches show the coral shoals and reefs, with 

 ever and anon the white sails of a fishing boat flashing in the 

 sunlight. It may be styled a land of sleep, of rugged gorge, of 

 sheltering valley. Vegetation is profuse, and its growth is 

 maintained by the very heavy dew nightly occurring, and which 

 is so saturating that at sunrise it may be seen dropping from 

 the foliage like rain. /As a consequence trees, shrubs and 

 plants attain a luxuriance unknown in more northern climes. 

 The most abundant and universal tree is the Juniper {Jiinipenis 

 Berjiiudiensts), known in the islands only as the Cedar. Its 

 abundance everywhere makes it almost wearisome to the eye 

 in its sombre monotony. It varies in size according to soil and 

 situation. The wood is very durable and fragrant. The 

 earliest records of parties wrecked, as far back as 1593, speak of 

 the cedar, palmetto, mulberries and wild olives, " infinite store, 

 with divers other unknown by name and nature." But there is 

 in fact no reliable data or report respecting the arboreal or 

 floral vegetation of these islands between these early records 

 and the beginning of the present century. Helmsley, whose 

 report on the botany of Bermuda in connection with the 

 "Challenger" expedition is the best work of reference, says the 

 botanical history of the islands really began in 1806, when 

 Micheaux visited them. Helmsley thinks the native plants 

 may be put down at from 140 to 150, and that a parallel is 

 offered on the other side of the Atlantic by the flora of the 

 Azores. He places the endemic flora of Bermuda as eight 

 species, and adds to this that " weeds and chance species 

 brought out in seed packages naturalize with facility, and 



