ABORIGINAL PLANTS OF ST. HELENA. 
31 
XXII. Silver 
191. Little Trot. 
192. Albion’s Cliffs. 
194. Miss Kingsbury. 
Variegated. 
193. Princess Alexandra, 
199. Silver Chain. 
XXIII. Bronzes. 
201. The Czar. 209. James Richards. 
202. Black Douglas. 213. W. E. Gumbleton. 
207. Marechal MacMahon. 
III. On the Best Means of preserving from extirpation some 
of the Aboriginal Plants of St. Helena. By T. Yernon 
Wollaston, E.L.S. 
Considering the extreme interest of the various arborescent 
Composite, peculiar to St. Helena, and the rapid rate at which many 
of them are becoming extinct, it seems to me a great pity that mea¬ 
sures should not he taken to preserve, at any rate, a few of each 
species before it is too late. The difficulty of getting their seeds to 
germinate, even after a three-weeks’passage to England, and although 
transmitted perfectly fresh and in the best condition, is well known 
to everybody who has endeavoured to introduce them into our 
northern greenhouses; and yet, in situ , every seed that is carried by 
the wind and lodged within a crevice or on the face of an almost 
perpendicular rock well-nigh denuded of soil, would seem to be¬ 
come a plant in an incredibly short time ; and were the island but 
left alone (a “ consummation devoutly to be wished ”) for a couple 
of generations, and the inhabitants prevented from tampering with 
the small remaining portion of their aboriginal forests, the whole 
of the central region would be again a jungle of Cabbage-trees, 
Gumwoods, and Asters. But each year sees the latter more and 
more cleared away ; and what with the ruthless axe of (so-calledl 
“civilisation” and the eternal nibbling of goats, some of the most 
remarkable members of the flora, such as the “ Redwood ” and 
native “ Ebony ” (which, however, are not Composites), have 
already disappeared for ever. 
That the seeds, however, may occasionally be made to germinate 
even in England is certain, for at any rate two of the species which 
I transmitted to Sir J. Hooker, about a year and a half ago, from 
St. Helena, he informs me have been reared at Kew. These are 
the Commidendron robustum , EC., or “ Gumwood,” and the ex¬ 
ceedingly rare Aster gummiferus , Hk. fil., or “Little Bastard 
