Vegetation 
Although numerous parties have stopped at Pecker, visits were brief 
and few botanical collections were made. La Perouse, who was the first 
to mention the vegetation of the island * stated that in 1786 "It [did] 
not exhibit a single tree, but there [was] a great deal of grass near the 
summit" (La Perouse, 1799)* Both Captain John Paty (1857:40) and the 
annexation party who visited Necker in 1857 and 1894 respectively also 
—- ^ 1 
noted patches of grass. Fisher1903a:777) of the Albatross Expedition 
gave a slightly more detailed description of the vegetation: 
The wider shelves of the island are sparsely covered with a flesh- 
.stemmed, yellow-flowered portulaca ( Portulaca lutea ), and the summit 
is rather plentifully grown over with Chenopodium sandwicheum bushes, 
on which large colonies of Sula piscator [Red-footed Booby] and 
Fregata aquila [Great Frigatebird] were nesting at the time of our 
visit. 
Elschner (1915:16) briefly mentions the vegetation as being "slight... 
and this...[is found] in higher, more flat parts of the island while 
the lower parts of the vertical walls and the shore rocks are bare." 
While he alludes to plant collections made--"my time being limited I 
was unable to gather many plants on this island"--the disposition of the' 
1. Article in the Hawaiian Star (a Honolulu newspaper), issue of 
ft 
31 May 189^- 
I 
