BLACK beard's TREE. AIR PLANTS. S9 



Is growing a species of cactus, wild coffee bushes, and vines and 

 shrubs with which we were not familiar. The top of the tree 

 towards the harbor, being more exposed to the wind, was evi- 

 dently rudely trimmed and dismembered by the hurricane, and 

 the growth and development appear to have been mostly on the 

 opposite side. 



It was under a wild fig or banyan tree that Black Beard, the 

 noted pirate, in the early history of Nassau, ''used to sit in 

 council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating his 

 plans and exercising the authority of a magistrate." The trunk 

 of it existed and was seen by McKinncn nearly a hundred years 

 afterwards, in 1804, as he states in his "Tour through the West 

 Indies." The author of ''Letters from the Bahama Islands, 

 written in 1823-4," states that "the remains of an immense tree 

 are to be seen on which it is said the renowned Black Beard hung 

 his prisoners, and it is supposed by many that large treasures 

 were buried near it by the pirates." A recent Nassau magazine 

 writer states that "Black Beard's tree" used to stand at the 

 north-west corner of the eastern parade ground. 



Some of the highway fences in the outskirts of Nassau furnish 

 strong evidences of the favorable influence of this climate ujion 

 vcgetaljle life and growth. The posts in a green state, unhewn 

 and unmorticed, having in some ingenious manner been made to 

 assume an upright position, are pusliing out and developing 

 branches, apparently unconscious that from some tree in the 

 forest tliey have been dismembered. 



There are upon the island many species of air plants, and one 

 of these being suspended upon the wall of our room, obtained 

 nutriment enough from the surrounding air alone to make it an 

 object of attraction to a vegetable parasite, and a beautiful and 

 delicate little vine was soon discovered feeding upon its juices, 

 which grew, budded, blossomed and flourished, until the poor 



