210 



EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



of supply. Tlirougli the ravines which intersect the valleys streams pour down into the sea 

 during the rainy season, but their beds, crowded here and there with large boulders of trap 

 rock, are hardly moist during the dry weather. 



The flora of the island is tropical, and was observed to be as beautiftil as can be found in any 

 similar latitude. In the valleys and along the sea beach a tree of large size, called by the 

 people living on the island the Crumeiw, was seen in abundance. It had a thick and short 

 trunk, with a gray bark, a very dense foliage, with large oval leaves of smooth surface and 

 bright green color, arrayed in clusters around the branches, from the ends of which grew tufts 

 of beautiful whit« flowers. 



Dense forests of palm crowded up the hill-sides and into the ravines, and were of such close 

 growth that their full development was hindered and other vegetation prevented. The fan- 

 palm was the most abundant of the six species observed. Among the various trees was noticed 

 a variety of the beech of considerable size, a large tree growing in abundance on the mountains, 

 which somewhat resembled the dog-wood, and an immense mulberry with an occasional girth 

 of thirteen or fourteen feet. Of smaller trees and plants, there were the laureL the juniper, the 

 box-wood tree, fern^ banana, orange, pine-apple, and whortleberry. Lichens, mosses, and 



,NrtnNK«"'>*'^"'-^'" 



Stapleton Island. 



various parasitic plants were abundant. Tliere were but few kinds ot grasses, and most of thom 

 unfit for pasturage. The jungle weed, in the uncultivated tracts, is so dense that it crowds out 

 almost everything else of its kind. 



