SHIPWRECK 47 



my memory raced down the list of hummingbirds, tried to 

 correlate colors of gorget and ruif and nape with specie and 

 genera. And I failed. I did not even know its name! With a 

 great easy swoop the feathered mite swung to one side and 

 quickly glided into the cacti as if to say, "So, you would know 

 everything?'^ 



Turning landward I examined the vegetation. It was tropical 

 but not the exuberant, riotous vegetation of Haiti or Santo 

 Domingo not too many miles away. Rather it was of a more 

 subtle type, the type known as xerophytic, that tends to show 

 its beauty in the sharpness of thorns, highly colored bark, 

 spiny cacti and thick padded leaves. Thorns! They were the 

 keynote of this island vegetation. Thorns, speaking mutely of 

 a scanty existence, of the scorching of hot sun, of searing winds 

 and dry soil. Desert vegetation. Half-consciously I felt my can- 

 teen to make sure it was full. A few thatch palms dotted some 

 distant ridges and stood out starkly against the sky. There was 

 a certain wild character about these plants, a certain impression 

 that was at one and the same time forbidding and yet appeal- 

 ing. Perhaps this was due to their very sparseness, to their 

 thorns, possibly to the open sand and rock that showed be- 

 tween the tree boles in little patches. Yet they were not devoid 

 of flowers, for even on the cacti pads bloomed vivid scarlet 

 and yellow blossoms. A subtly pleasing scene, tropical, yet not 

 gaudy, the sort of thing that does not tire one too quickly. 



There was one character that impressed. All the plants on 

 the ridge and for some distance beyond leaned to the land. 

 Theirs was an existence of sweeping wind, the interminable 

 pressing of the trade winds that forced branch and leaf to their 

 will. Day in and day out the bree2:e pressed its shoulders against 

 their intricacies. And in defense these plants had turned their 

 backs, had huddled close to the rocks. Here already was a chain 

 of island life, interlocking links starting with the wind that 



