579 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 167 
that are known to have been introduced by man. Some of the 
larger shrubs might be much more extensively used than they are 
for windbreaks against the salt spray and sea-foam* along exposed 
shores. The “Sea-side Grape” (Coccoloba) is well adapted for this 
use. The Mangrove and Black Mangrove are of great value in pro- 
tecting certain shores from erosion by the sea, as well as against 
winds, while their peculiar roots serve efficiently to entangle vege- 
table debris and silt, and thus add to the extent and fertility of the 
shores. 
Seurvy Grass. (Cakile equalis L. H.) 
Common on the shores. Also on the southeastern coast of the 
United States and in the West Indies. Sometimes cooked and 
eaten, as greens, by the natives. 
Mahoe. (Hibiscus tiliaceus L.=Paritium tiliaceum Juss.; Gris.) 
A large malvaceous tree, with large heart-shaped leaves, gray 
below. It is found on most tropical coasts. A fine tree grows at 
Somerville ; a few at Walsingham and elsewhere; not common. 
It has been raised from seed cast ashore at the islands. Found on 
nearly all tropical coasts. 
* Much of the damage done to vegetation by the winds near all sea coasts is 
due to masses of sea-foam, caught up from the shores, where it is formed by the 
waves, even in moderate gales, and carried inland, often to long distances. 
Lodging on leaves and branches, it kills or damages those plants that are not 
immune, unless at once washed off by rain. 
In my own experiments, during more than fourteen years, in setting out trees 
and hardy herbaceous plants on a small island in Long Island Sound, I have 
often lost every specimen of certain species of herbaceous plants and trees from 
this action of sea water in a single dry wind-storm, even after they had lived 
and grown well for years in the same places. 
In the severe hurricane of Aug. 25, 1893, nearly all the native shrubs and 
deciduous trees, as well as many cultivated ones, were killed by the foam and 
spray, including Hickory Trees that were over 60 years old and up to a foot in 
diameter. The native Red Cedar, Pitch Pine, Japanese Privet and Eleaginus, 
Bayberry, and Poison Ivy were least injured, but the last two lost their foliage 
and were partly killed, nearly to the ground. Had rain continued to the end of 
the storm, so as to wash away the salt foam, little injury would have been done. 
This single storm, therefore, was sufficient to have exterminated many native 
species of plants on islands of considerable size. On this occasion the salt 
spray and foam seriously damaged the foliage of forest and fruit trees on the 
mainland, even several miles from the shore. A white film of salt was observed 
on the leaves of trees fifteen to twenty miles from the sea, 
