222 
ST. HELENA. 
of the East India Company, that the timber was rapidly disappear- 
ing, and that the goats should be destroyed for the preservation of 
the Ebony wood, and because the Island was suffering from droughts. 
He received the laconic reply, £ The goats are not to be destroyed, 
being more valuable than Ebony.’ 
“Another century elapsed, and in 1810 another Governor re- 
ports the total destruction of the great forests by the goats, which 
gieedily devour the young plants, and kill the old by browsing on 
their leaves and bark, and that fuel was so scarce that the Govern- 
ment paid for coal (and this in a tropical islet) 2729?. 7s. 8 d. annually. 
Still, even then, so great was the amount of seed annually shed, so 
rich the soil, and so rapid the growth of the native plants, that the 
Governor goes on to say, that if the goats were killed and the Island 
left to itself, it would in twenty years be again covered with indi- 
genous vegetation. 
“ About this time the goats were killed, but another enemy to 
the indigenous vegetation was at the same time introduced, and 
which has now rendered it in all probability impossible that the 
native plants will ever again resume their sway. Major-General 
Beatson, then Governor, an active and sagacious officer, proposed 
and carried out the introduction of exotic plants on a large scale, 
and from all parts of the world ; these have propagated themselves 
witn such rapidity, and grown with such vigour, that the native 
plants cannot compete with them. The struggle for existence had 
no sooner begun, than the issue was pronounced ; English broom, 
brambles, willows, and poplars, Scotch pines and gorse bushes, Cape 
of Good Hope bushes, Australian trees and American weeds, 
speedily overran the place ; and wherever established, they have 
actually extinguished the indigenous Flora, which, as I have said 
before, is now almost confined to the crest of the central ridge. 
“ It is therefore now impossible to distinguish the introduced 
from the native plants of St. Helena j but most fortunately Herbaria 
exist, made at the beginning of this century, that to a great extent 
supply the deficiency. Of these, the most complete was formed by 
the late Dr. Burchell, the eminent South African and Brazilian 
traveller, who spent five years in St. Helena, from 1805 to 1810. 
Unfortunately for science, Dr. Burchell never published, and scarcely 
allowed any naturalist access to his Herbarium. On his death, last 
year, Ins magnificent botanical collections were presented to Kew 
