598 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 
that all the Palmetto trees be henceforth preserved, and that you the 
Governor & Councell take care and give comand for planting of 
them in all the little Islands.” 
In 1671, another law was passed against persons destroying the 
palmettoes “on the small islands” and thus depriving the inhabitants 
of the means of obtaining the leaves for thatching their houses. 
At the present time, numbers of young palmettoes may be seen 
coming up, here and there, all over the wooded parts of the larger 
islands, and if protected they may, after many years, become large 
trees, if in good soil, but when the soil is thin and barren they never 
become tall, but grow in the form of a dwarf palmetto, with a trunk 
only a few feet high, or sometimes even without any trunk above 
ground. 
In 1675, it was ordered that some houses thatched with palmetto 
leaves and standing close to the town hall should be shingled to 
diminish the risk from fire. Shortly after this the Company urged 
the general use of shingles for roofing in St. George’s. 
On July 18, 1677, an order is recorded in the Parish Register for 
thatching the Pembroke church with palmetto leaves, each person to 
bring in “ eight dozen good leaves” on the 25th of July, or else pay 
18° 4°, and this order was made a permanent one for the future, 
whenever the church should need thatching. 
Governor Butler, in commenting upon the destitution and famine 
in the time of Governor Moore (1614), makes the following remarks: 
“The overcleareing of St. George’s Iland, which was the place of 
their residence, by cuttinge downe the palmitoe trees, to have their 
heades for foode, a cheife releife of the people at that time, but such 
a disableinge of the place for tobacco (which is as yet the staple 
commoditie), as that not only to this day but for many yeares to 
come it must needes to feele the weight of that stroke ; neither was 
it possible for the governour to cure or prevent this ill, by any pro- 
hibition, because the belly hath noe eares.” 
Although Governor Butler here refers only to the palmetto, it is 
certain that the cedars had been cut down quite as extensively, if 
not more so, for timber and wood, during the same years, and the 
effect of cutting down the cedars would have been the greater, for 
it makes the better wind-break, though when young the palmetto is 
also pretty effectual, and it was often mentioned as being used for 
division fences or hedges. The removal of the shade from those 
hills, that are naturally dry, would have increased the dryness in 
time of drouth, and this was also a cause of increasing barrenness. 
