286 Mr Snell, The Natural History of the Island ofRodrigues 



and here they plant their haricot beans. They utiHse a tract of 

 land for one season, and abandon it the next. Thus the work of 

 destruction continues. Many of the older inhabitants, at present 

 living on the island, say that they remember large tracts, which 

 are now almost bare except for a few Vacoas (Screw-pines), being 

 originally covered with almost impenetrable forest, but nobody 

 remembers the large expanse of coralline limestone at the south- 

 western end of the island in any other than its present state, 

 though there are unmistakeable traces, in roots and stumps em- 

 bedded in the ground and charred by fire, shoAving that this region 

 was also at one time completely afforested. The large rifts are often 

 thirty feet or more deep, and fifteen to twenty yards wide, and 

 contain many fine old indigenous trees which have escaped destruc- 

 tion. The Valley of St Frangois, at the north-east end of the island, 

 is perhaps the only other tract which has escaped destruction. 



The commonest trees in the island are the Vacoas or Screw-pines 

 (Pandanus), of which there are two species, both endemic. Three 

 other species have been recorded by various authorities, one being 

 a native of Asia, and the other two Madagascar species. None of 

 them occurs in Mauritius or Reunion, and the evidence of their 

 occurrence in Rodrigues is faulty. There are three species of 

 endemic palms, belonging to three genera, which are all Mascarene. 

 Probably half the plants have been destroyed, but from what is 

 left — 297 species of Phanerogams, and 175 species of Cryptogams 

 (excluding Marine Algae) — it is clear that the endemic flora was 

 large and of Mascarene aSinities. There are only about twenty 

 species of ferns, the scarcity of this group being accounted for by 

 the present dryness of the island, in confirmation of which it may 

 be remarked that the tree-ferns of the other Mascarene islands 

 are not represented. 



The present day fauna is not large. The extinct fauna has proved 

 to be of very great interest, particularly in the case of the Solitaire 

 (Pezophaps solitaria, Gmel.), the extinct Didine bird related to the 

 i)odo of Mauritius. Considerable collections of the remains of this 

 bird have been made from the limestone caves, where also the 

 remains of other extinct birds and of the giant Land Tortoise have 

 been found. Our main knowledge of the recent fauna is due to the 

 labours of the naturalists attached to the Transit of Venus Ex- 

 peditions carried out in 1874-5. 



The marine fauna is in general of the Indo-Pacific type. 



The only indigenous mammal found in the island is a fruit-bat, 

 Pteropus rodericensis, Dobson, which is peculiar to Rodrigues. The 

 introduced mammals, other than those already mentioned, are 

 deer, rabbits, rats, mice and cats, the latter being left by the 

 Dutch to destroy the rats. 



Sir Edward Newton, K.C.M.G., published a list of Rodrigues 



