228 
ST. HELENA. 
localities whence Ebony was gathered for fuel, and Gumwood felled 
for building purposes, where now no trace of either can he seen. 
Persons ‘living in the Island can also recollect losing their 
way in the Gumwood forests at Longwood, where now grassy plains 
with scarcely a tree exist. 
Of the low-land plants, the Scrubwood is perhaps the most 
abundant now remaining ; and next to that the Frankenia. Most 
of the others are found only as isolated individuals ; hut all 
of these, which occupy the outer portion of the Island, are scarcer 
than the Gumwood and the Rosemary, which are plants of mid- 
altitude ; and these latter in their turn are less plentiful than some 
of the high-land species. The most abundant indigenous plant 
at present is undoubtedly the Whitewood Cabbage- Tree ; the Black- 
wood is the next ; while then in order of quantity comes the He- 
Cabbage-Tree, followed by the She-Cabbage-Tree, with the Dogwood 
perhaps taking the next position. Some species have dwindled 
down to a single plant only; this is the case with the Psiadia 
rotundifolia, which had almost been classed with the extinct species, 
until, after long and patient search, I experienced the great delight 
of discovering one tree of it in the Black field at Bongwood Gate. 
It is an old tree, probably the only one alive anywhere, and 
wood that is neerest to the ffort — viz., at the head of Sayne Valley.”— MSS. Records, 
“ That one day in the week it employs all the Blacks to fetch wood from the Horse 
pasture and Greatwood.” — 3£SS. Records, 1709. 
“ Nearly all the Ebony wood was burnt up in providing 1000 or 1200 bushels of lime 
for building the Castle on l\Innden*s Point. - 3LSS. Records, 1709. 
« We find ye place called the Great wood in a flourishing condition, full of young trees, 
where the Hoggs (of w" there is a great abundance) do not come to root them up. But 
ye Greatwood "is miserably lessened and destroyed within our memories, and is not near the 
circuit and length it was. But we believe it does not contain less now than fifteen hundred 
acres of fine woodland and good ground, but no springs of water but what is salt or brackish, 
w cU we take to be the reason that that part was not inhabited when ye people first chose 
out their Settlem 18 and made Plantations; but if wells could be sunk, which ye Govem r sayes 
he will attempt when we have more hands, we should then think it ye most pleasant and 
healthiest part of ye Island. But as to healthiness we don’t think ’twill hold so, if the wood 
y 1 keeps ye land warme were destroyed, for then ye rains w ch are violent here would carry 
away ye upper soil, and it being a clay marie underneath would produce hut little ; as it is, 
we think in case it were enclosed it might be greatly improved.” . . . “IV hen once this 
wood is gone the Island will soon be ruin’d.” . . . “We viewed the wood’s end which joyns 
to the Honb'° Comp 1 ' 8 Plantation called the Hutts, but the wood is so destroyed that the 
beginning of the Great wood is now a whole mile beyond that place, and all the soil between 
beim* washt away that distance is now entirely barren.” — MSS. Records, 1716. 
“Several persons, in contempt and defiance of the ancient laws made for the preser- 
vation of The Greatwood, have nevertheless lately felled and caryed away several young trees 
from that part called The Flagstaff and Headwood. JbT&S. Records, 1/27. 
