BLACK BEARD’S TREE. AIR PLANTS. 89 
ts growing a species of cactus, wild coffee bushes, and vines and 
shrubs with which we were not familiar. The top of the tree 
towards the harbor, being more exposed to the wind, was evi- 
dently rudely trimmed and dismembered by the hurricane, and 
the growth and development appear to have been mostly on the 
opposite side. 
It was under a wild fig or banyan tree that Black Beard, the 
noted pirate, in the early history of Nassau, ‘‘used to sit in 
council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating his 
plans and exercising the authority of a magistrate.” The trunk 
of it existed and was seen by McKinnen nearly a hundred years 
afterwards, in 1804, as he states in his “Tour through the West 
Indies.” The author of ‘‘ Letters from the Bahama Islands, 
written in 1823-4,” states that ‘‘the remains of an immense tree 
are to be seen on which itis said the renowned Black Beard hung 
his prisoners, and it is supposed by many that large treasures 
were buried near it by the pirates.” A recent Nassau magazine 
writer states that ‘‘Black Beard’s tree” used to stand at the 
north-west corner of the eastern parade ground. 
Some of the highway fences in the outskirts of Nassau furnish 
strong evidences of the favorable influence of this climate upon 
vegetable life and growth. The posts in a green state, unhewn 
and unmorticed, having in some ingenious manner been made to 
assume an upright position, are pushing out and developing 
branches, apparently unconscious that from some tree in the 
forest they have been dismembered. 
There are upon the island many species of air plants, and one 
of these being suspended upon the wall of our room, obtained 
nutriment enough from the surrounding air alone to make it an 
object of attraction to a vegetable parasite, and a beautiful and 
delicate little vine was soon discovered feeding upon its juices, 
which grew, budded, blossomed and flourished, until the poor 
