GENERAL IMPRESSIONS. 5 



be found in the display of exotic plants. This exhibit is, how- 

 ever, not confined to Hamilton ; it is the property of the entire 

 island group, where it has become, if the expression might be 

 permitted, naturalized. The unfortunate ones among us who 

 in the northern region ecstatically wonder at the rare treats 

 which the floriculturist from time to time lays before them, can 

 obtain but little comfort from a trip to the Bermudas. Their 

 earlier-formed notions of grandeur soon disappear. It would, 

 however, be conveying a false impression to state that the veg- 

 etation is luxurious, or that it is at all comparable in exuber- 

 ance with the vegetation of the true tropics, or even with that 

 of many parts of the peninsula of Florida. On the contrary, 

 it is on the whole sparse, and only here and there, in favored 

 localities, or where the husbandman has largely assisted nature, 

 does it reveal those touches of picturesque quality which so 

 impress the mind of the stranger, and lead him to believe in 

 special luxuriance. 



The native arboreal vegetation is scrubby, consisting almost 

 wholly of the Bermuda juniper and the sabal or palmetto, the 

 latter being probably the only native species of palm of the 

 twelve or more forms now found on the islands. The date 

 and cocoa-nut are both cultivated, but it is only exceptionally 

 that the fruit arrives at maturity. Superb specimens of the 

 former, the so-called "three sisters, "are found in the singularly 

 attractive public garden of St. George's, but elsewhere the tree 

 is not exactly uncommon, rising generally in solitary grandeur 

 above its less pretentious associates. Nothing, it appears to 

 me, can surpass in majesty the five specimens of cabbage-palm 

 ( Oreodo-jra oleracea) which adorn the roadside at Pembroke Hall, 

 in the outskirts of Hamilton, and justly constitute the pride of 

 the Bermudians. Like granite monoliths the gray shafts, GO- 

 TO feet in height, stand unbending to the elements that play 

 about them, unmoved by the force that tosses their delicate 

 plumes into restless activity. 



Of our common deciduous trees, oaks, birches, beeches, pop- 

 lars, etc., there is sca-rcely a trace to be seen, nor is there any- 



