I50 AMSTERDAM ISLAND. 
and that 40,000 plants of tobacco liax e been produced from 
one individual. And as an instance of the actual dispersion 
of vegetables, this accurate observer asserts tliat an American 
plant, of the genus Erigerou, which was first brought into 
Europe scarcely a century ago, and ciilti^'ated in the bo- 
tanical garden at Paris, had, in his time, spontaneously 
spread itself over all France, Italy, Sicily, Flanders, and 
Genu any. 
The neighbouring island of St. Paul is wholly covered with 
an impenetrable thicket of coppice wood. Like Amsterdam 
it is also of volcanic origin, and the shore is said to be sur- 
rounded with pumice stone. It may, therefore, be reason- 
ably conjectured that of the two islands St. Paul is consider- 
ably the earlier creation. 
It is observed by ^^alentjm that, when William de Vlaming 
visited this island in I696, the pond (meaning the crater) was 
separated by a ridge of rocks from the sea about twenty 
paces, over which the seals clambered ; that it was shaped 
like a half moon, and about a pistol-shot in length. From 
the description which I have just gi^ en it will readily be per- 
ceived that a very material change has been effected in the 
course of one hundred years, probably by some fresh erup- 
tion having taken place. The same writer mentions like- 
wise a reef of rocks near the crater that jutted into the sea to 
the distance of about a gun-shot, which at that time Avere 
observed to be in a burning state. These were no doubt the 
same as that of which the basaltic rock I have described 
forms a part. This is still perfectly naked ; and Vlaming 
found only on the great island a few reeds, and here and 
