CHAP. Iv. ] ST. THOMAS TO BERMUDAS. 321 
ing our stay two at least of these, a blue-and-white kingfisher 
(Ceryle alcyon), and the well-known “rice bird” (Dolichonyx 
oryzivorus) ; several other birds, including a species of Gadllr- 
nula and one or two of the smaller passeres, all common Amer- 
ican species, alighted on the ship while we were cruising in this 
neighborhood. Only one reptile is known, a lizard common in 
Carolina; and a small fish allied to the mullet occurs, not in 
great abundance, in the brackish-water marshes. 
During our two visits Mr. Moseley collected the plants vigor- 
ously, and, by a kind arrangement of General Lefroy’s, he spent 
a few days at the camp of the Engineers in Painter’s Vale, in 
the middle of the best botanical district. He dried about a 
hundred and fifty species of flowering plants, which were sent 
to Kew, and Dr. Hooker, in returning the rough list, expresses 
his surprise at finding the flora to possess so tropical a character. 
It is pleasant to ride of an evening along the green roads in 
Bermudas. Things are so much alike all over the world, the 
exigencies of cultivation and traffic requiring everywhere the 
same palings, or hedge-rows, or low walls, and nature everywhere 
encumbering and ameliorating the road-sides with green weeds, 
with blue or white or red or yellow flowers, that one might al- 
most fancy one’s self among the green lanes of the middle coun- 
ties of England. The exotic character of the vegetation of 
Bermudas is not obtrusive. The universal cedar might be a 
yew or a dark-foliaged pine, and only here and there a graceful 
group of tall palmettos rises over a mangrove swamp. Cha 
merops palmetto is the only indigenous palm; the cabbage 
palm (Oreodoxa oleracea), the date palm (Phenix dactylifera), 
the cocoa-nut (Cocos nucifera), and the grugru palm (Astroca- 
ryum cureum), have been introduced, and grow well; but they 
do not ripen their fruit. The bananas round the cottages look 
tropical, and so do the stars of scarlet bracts of Poinsettia and 
the stars of crimson flowers of Lrythrina; but the far more 
general tamarisks and oleanders are familiar. An exotic cast is 
