12 



erally distributed over the islands, from eight 

 to ten feet high with a stout cylindrical stem 

 varying according to location. On rocky 

 hills it is dwarfed while on marsh lands 

 it is vigorous and attains twenty to thirty 

 feet in height. It produces greenish-black 

 berries, one- third of an inch in diameter. The 

 blade of the leaf is smooth and fan shaped, 

 about four feet long and rather more in 

 width. It is mentioned by the earliest dis- 

 coverers, and proved most useful to the early 

 colonists in various ways. 



Mulberry (Morus rubra)— This tree is men- 

 tioned by the first discoverci-s of these islands 

 but the fruit seldom comes to anything. It 

 is from twenty to twenty-five feet high, with 

 dense foliage, the leaves being from five U> 

 eight inehv^s long and three to five inches 

 wide. Little attention has been paid to its 

 cultivation until a few years ago when the 

 breeding of silkworms w^as attempted by Dr. 

 Smith, but the cocoons failing to mature here 

 have been shipped largely to Italy and 

 France for silk manufacture. 



Seaside Grape (Cocoloba Uvifera) is a large- 

 ly distributed tree, especially along the sea- 

 shore, of sturdy growth, with large smooth 

 and shining leaves three to six inches long, 

 and about as wide. The fruit is in clusters 

 exactly resembling that of the true grape, 

 the berries when ripe being purplish, and the 

 size of grapes. They however have an acrid 

 and rough taste very different from true 

 grapes. Its branches are widespreading and 

 the flower is small, whitish and forming 

 drooping racemes. 



Olive (Olea Europo^a)— Whether this tree is 

 really indigenous is an open question, al- 

 though one of the early shipwiecked marin- 



