208 A. B. Verrili— The Bermuda Islands. 620 
This tree has not been identified satisfactorily. It may have been 
a tree now entirely extinct. The fourth, which he described as 
like Lignum-vite, is now unknown. Possibly it was the black man- 
grove. 
The native Wild Olive. (Srestiera porulosa Poir.) 
This is now a rare native shrub, which was probably common 
originally. In recent years it has been found in Bermuda only at 
Walsingham and on Boaz Island, but it occurs also in Florida, Texas, 
and the West Indies. 
It has been thought by some that it was the “wild olive” of the 
early settlers, but without any sufficient evidence, as I have stated, 
in discussing the true olive. 
It was, undoubtedly, much more generally distributed when the 
islands were first settled, and has been nearly exterminated by the 
clearing of the lands. 
The leaves are thick, 2-4 inches long, lanceolate or elliptical, entire, 
blunt, wedge-shaped at base, usually shining above, dotted below. 
Flowers small, 4-parted, apetalous, in small racemes. Berries one- 
seeded and one-sided, elliptical, one-third of an inch long, or nearly 
as long as the pedicel, covered with a bloom. 
Olive-wood Bark. (Hl«@odendron xylocarpum Del.) 
A rare small tree, now found only in the Walsingham woods. In 
the early days of Bermuda this native tree was cut down for tanning 
purposes, on account of its astringent bark. 
Later, the cutting of it was restricted by law, but it has now 
become nearly extinct. From the early records, it is not easy to 
ascertain whether the laws restricting the cutting of “Barke” for 
tanning purposes applied to this or to the Button-wood Tree, for 
both were used for tanning and both seemed to have been called 
“Darke.” It is also native in the West Indies. 
The leaves are thick or leathery, 2 inches long, oblong or obovate, 
subentire, tapering to the short petiole. Flowers small, in short, 
axillary cymes; petals and stamens five ; berry large ovoid. 
The Button-wood Tree; Sea Mulberry; Barke; Zaragoza Mangrove. 
( Conocarpus erectus Linné.) 
This native tree, if correctly identified, was considered valuable 
by the early settlers, because it proved to be the one most suitable 
for the tanning of leather.* 
* Tanning leather is referred to as a trade in Bermuda, Oct., 1651, and the 
tanners were complained of for doing bad work. Therefore the Council ordered 
inspectors appointed for viewing the leather. 
