Poverf// of iLs Natural Jlistor//. 295 



that not one of the three denizens of the island can write. 

 For instance, we once remarked to our worthy Viot that by his 

 own reckoning he had marked one day more than he had 

 actually lived. " We always get into a mess with these con- 

 founded months of thirty-one days ! " was the good-humoured 

 reply of the ancient wanderer from Nantes. 



Although the volcanic soil of St Paul is everywhere 

 especially adapted for scientific study, it nevertheless presents 

 few objects with which to enrich collections of natural history. 

 An island, on which not a single tree or bush is to be found, 

 and on whose tufa soil, though well adapted for fruit, only 

 a few grasses, ferns, and mosses thrive, must, so far as regards 

 the value of his researches, prove as little interesting to 

 the botanist as the zoologist, who, as we shall see more circum- 

 stantially further on, came across but few representatives here 

 of the animated kingdom. 



At several places, the practical gardener who accompanied 

 the frigate was ordered to plant a number of European 

 vegetables and anti-scorbutic plants, such as cabbage, horse- 

 radish, turnips, of various assorted species, celery, garden-cress, 

 and spoonwort,* it is to be hoped with favourable results. At 

 all events, we had the satisfaction during our stay, of seeing 

 the tender shoots of some of the vegetables already sproutino- 

 through the surface of the earth. At that time there were 



* The vegetables planted were as follows : — Bmssica rapa (rape) ; Brassica 

 oleracea capitata (sea kail) ; Brassica rapa alba {\Nhiie i\xYm^) ■, Brassica rapa fiava 

 (yellow turnip) ; Baphanus sativus (radish) ; Lepidium sativum (dittandu) ; CochJema 

 officinalis (scurvy grass). 



