33© ST. HELENA 



E. Daucus carota. Linn. Common Carrot. 



E. Draecoena cernus. Willd. 2. 157. 



E. Dianthus barbatus. Linn. Sweet William. 



E. Dianthus chinenses. Linn. China Pink. 



E. Dianthus carophyllus. Linn. Clove. 



I. Dicksonia arborescens. Willd. 5. 485. Stipes, raches and sub- 

 divisions compressed and somewhat woolly, but not scabrous. 

 Fronds ovate-oblong, hard glossy above, suboppositely tri- 

 pinnate ; ultimate segments from oval to oblong and crenate 

 serrate. Spots on the margin until they open transversely 

 oval after round. Grows on the tops of the highest mountains, 

 such as Diana's Peak. Trunk single, straight ; general height 

 when full grown twenty or more feet, and of various thick- 

 nesses up to that of a man's body ; covered with the bases of 

 the decayed stipes, mosses and parasites of various kinds ; 

 at the apex clothed with long soft tawny-brown wool like that 

 of which the finest shawls are made. When the woolly sub- 

 stance is removed, the parts over which it extends are found 

 to be scabrous. Fronds (including the stipes) from four to 

 ten feet long. 



E. Diosconea alata. Linn. Winged Yam. f *? e T e ^ J?J$L 

 E. Diosconea acaleata. R. Thorny Yam. [ 3s t ^ee Arum 



E. Diospyrus Kanki. Linn. Japan Diospyros, fruit large and 

 edible. 



I. Dombeya Erythroxylon. Willd. 3. 725. Pentapetes Erythroxy- 

 lon. Hort. Kew, 1st edit., 2, 438. Melhavia, 2nd edit., 4-146 

 of the same work. 



Arboreous. Leaves ovate-cordate, crenulate, acuminate, smooth 

 above, reticulate underneath, while young hoary obscurely 

 3-5 nerved. Peduncles axillary solitary 2-3 flowered, flowers 

 pentandrous. Red wood tree, the vernacular name on St. 

 Helena where it is indigenous on moderately high hills, where, 

 if the soil is suitable, it grows rapidly with a straight trunk 

 to be a middling sized tree of great beauty. Bark dark brown, 

 even and pretty smooth. Branches numerous, spreading, 

 tender twigs hoary. Stipules subulate. Peduncles about as 

 long as the petioles. Flowers larger than in the following 

 (d. Melanoxylon), colour the same and also changeable. 

 Nectarial filaments flesh coloured. Style twice the length of 

 the stamina. Capsules oblong, pointed, very hairy and some- 

 what shorter than the permanent calyx ; cells 3-5 seeded. 

 This tree furnishes the islanders with a hard, close-grained 

 mahogany-coloured durable wood. 



I. Dombeya melanoxylon. R. Melhania melanoxylon, Hort. Kew, 

 2nd edit., 4-46. Leaves ovate-cordate, longpetioled subentire, 

 firm, smooth above, ferruginously hoary underneath, obscurely 

 three-nerved. Peduncles axillary solitary, 1-2 flowered, 

 flowers pentandrous. Capsules ovate, obtuse, greatly shorter 

 than the permanent calyx. Cells 2-3 seeded. Ebony the 



