284 
ST. ITU LENA. 
Commidendron rugosum, D.C. — The indigenous plant called “ Scrub- 
wood” is a native of the low, outer zone of the Island, where, 
adjacent to the sea, it grows on the rocky land in the hot scorching 
atmosphere peculiar to those parts, as a straggling hush, about three 
or four feet in height. It still is plentiful in some parts, such as The 
Bam, Stone Top, Longrange, &c., even growing on the summit of 
the rocky pile called Lot ; and, although almost confined to the eastern 
and south-eastern outskirts of the Island, is nevertheless found in 
small quantities inland at High Knoll. Appears to blossom all the 
year round. — Plate 37. Hr. Hooker states, in the leones Plantarum, 
p. 45, from Burch. MSS., that it is also very rare in Ascension. In 
the same work it is also figured, 1057. 
359. “A. gummiferus, Hk. f . ; — Commidendron spurium, D.C. 
— This native plant, called “ The Little Bastard Gum wood,” 
is very rare indeed, though still to be found growing to a 
shrubby tree, eight or nine feet in height, on the high central ridge 
at High Peak, and near the old Picquet House above West Lodge. 
Flowers in January and February. Alt. 5‘4. Plate 3&. Also Hk. 
Icon. Plant. 1056* 
Commidendron, D.C. 
360. *C. robustum, D.C. ; — Conyza gummifera , Boxb. — This 
highly interesting indigenous tree, known as the native “ Gum 
Wood,” was probably once the most abundant plant- in the Island, 
and covered much of the lower zone of the land at that period when 
verdure clothed those parts which now show only sterility and bar- 
renness. The introduction of goats has, perhaps, done more to ex- 
terminate this tree than the rest of the native plants, because it grew 
on those parts they chiefly occupied ; and it is now fast disappearing, 
neither its unique foliage nor its insular characteristics being sufficient 
to induce the islanders to care for its preservation. It grows to a 
height of twenty feet, its crooked, rugged, black, lichen-covered stem 
being surmounted by a flat, umbrella-shaped mass of pale-blue foliage. 
Formerly, previous to the introduction of exotic plants, it supplied 
the chief fuel to the inhabitants, who also obtained a drink from its 
* In the leones Plantarum Dr. Hooker includes these three species under Aster, but in 
Bentham and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum they are referred back to Commidendron. 
