June  21,  1900 
527 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND 
COTTAGE 
GARDENER. 
The  Flower  of  St.  Helena. 
introduced  daring  the  last  250  years,  and  from  having  a  rather  jejune 
native  flora  the  island  has  now  come  to  possess  a  sort  of  microcosm  of 
botanical  variety. 
Maligned  St.  Helena. 
Localitiks,  like  persons,  may  suffer  defamation  for  very  insufficient 
reasons,  and  the  island  of  St.  Helena,  owing  to  the  fact  of  its  having 
been  selected  as  a  safe  place  for  the  deportation  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
has  gained  notoriety  at  the  cost  of  its  good  name.  The  posthumously 
•sainted  Corsican  was  in  1815  an  object  of  hatred  not  only  to  every 
nation  in  Burope,  but  to  all  those  French  people  uncorrupted  by  the 
gold  and  pinchbeck  glory  of  his  short-lived  Empire.  AVhen  the  powers 
hesitated  to  shoot  him,  everyone  was  interested  in  getting  him  safely 
locked  lip  at  such  a  distance  from  his  partisans,  that  his  diabolical  genius 
for  intrigue  (which  more  than  equalled  his  military  ability)  might 
operate  ineffectively.  Here 
the  obese,  undersized, 
and  quite  undignified 
“plunger”  of  monarchs 
■fretted  away  the  remain¬ 
ing  six  years  of  his  life, 
bullying  his  suite,  quar¬ 
relling  with  Sir  Hudson 
bowe,  posing  as  a  martyr 
to  the  European  peoples, 
and  misrepresenting  the 
beautiful  island  of  his 
residence  as  a  veritable 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta. 
Hysterical  Bonapartist 
litterateurs  have  since 
woven  an  absurdly  heart¬ 
rending  legend  of  the 
Imperial  Eagle  chained 
to  what  they  call  the 
pestilential  rock  of  St. 
Helena.  Not  to  mince 
phrases,  this  is  all  the 
verie.st  “buncombe,”  a 
foretaste  of  the  methods 
of  our  Americanised 
cheap  pre^s  of  to-day, 
which  strains  itself  to  the 
bursting  point  in  creating 
a  wave  of  mendacious 
sentimentalism.  Having 
thus  rehabilitated  Bona¬ 
parte’s  memory  and 
blackened  the  character 
of  St.  Helena,  the  French 
Chauvinists  of  sixty  years 
ago  succeeded  in  reover- 
ing  the  ashes  of  their 
little  Moloch,  and  ostenta¬ 
tiously  deposited  them  in 
the  Invalides  at  Paris 
among  the  people  whom, 
as  Bonaparte  sardonically 
observed  in  his  will,  “  he 
loved  so  well  ” — i  e.,  as 
the  epicure  loves  the 
oyster. 
Its  Appearance  and 
Climate. 
Had  it  not  been  for  his 
policy  Bonaparte  would, 
perhaps,  have  done  j ustice 
to  St.  Helena,  as  he  was 
fond  of  gardening  (sic), 
and  might  frequently  be 
seen  working  outside  his 
bungalow  in  the  hills  first  at  The  Briars  and  then  at  Longwood. 
St.  Helena,  like  Hong  Kong  and  some  We-it  Indian  Islands,  rises 
precipitously  from  the  sea  much  in  the  same  way  as  some  of  the 
western  isles  of  Scotland,  and  while  these  fragments  of  our  Empire 
present  none  of  the  aspect  of  placid  tropical  luxuriance  peculiar  to 
Polynesia,  they  are  far  from  resembling  sich  cinder-hcles  as  Ascension 
and  Aden.  They  are,  indeed,  more  like  Madeira  and  the  Canaries. 
The  appearance  presented  by  St.  Helena  on  nearing  it  is  not  pre¬ 
possessing.  The  fore  cliffs  tower  up  from  1000  to  2000  feet  barren 
and  sombre  in  a  sort  of  rampart,  except  where  intersected  by  savage 
gorges  or  glens  running  down  to  the  sea.  Of  these  the  gorge  at  the 
mouth  of  which  Jamestown,  the  capital,  lies  is  the  chief,  and  through 
it  access  is  obtained  to  the  highlands.  There  are,  roughly  speaking, 
two  zones  of  climate,  the  one  tropic  summ  -r  (from  68’  to  86°),  and  the 
other  temperate  summer  (from  56°  to  76  ).  The  former  prevails  at 
Jamestown,  which  is  “  stuffy,”  but  a  few  minutes  serves  to  transport 
the  visitor  to  an  altitude  where  flourishes  a  vegetation  not  unlike  that 
•  extending  from  the  Pyrenees  to  Piedmont.  This  has  nearly  all  been 
Bonaparte’s  Prison. 
It  is  in  this  upper  region  surrounded  by  a  moist  but  temperate 
summer  air,  nes'lmg  in  bold  declivities,  and  approached  by  roads 
penetrating  some  fifty  square  miles  of  rocky  and  romantic  scenery 
that  the  bungalows  stand  where  the  sainted  Corsican  moped  and  died 
of  an  hereditary  disease.  For  one  who  had  several  times  rained  upon 
his  species  the  beneficent  majesty  of  a  huge  prairie  fire  kind,  confine¬ 
ment  in  such  Arcadian  surroundings  must  have  proved  very  tedious, 
and  though  horticulture  might  serve  to  kill  time,  it  must  have  seemed 
tame  sport  in  comparison  with  Russian  retreats  and  killing  men  on  the 
scale  of  Borodino,  when  at 
the  end  of  the  day  80,000 
lay  dead  or  writhing  “  in 
one  red  burial  blent.” 
Poor,  bored  Bonaparte ! 
In  refutation  of  the 
Bonapartist  slander  re¬ 
garding  “  the  pestilential 
rock  of  St.  Helena,”  let 
us  hear  what  some  less 
prejudiced  narrators  have 
to  say  about  it.  “  When 
you  travel  three  miles 
inland  you  see  undulating 
pastures  of  the  richest 
green  and  orange  tints, 
interspersed  with  woods 
and  Fir  plantations,  and 
here  and  there  beautifully 
wooded  glens  leading  to 
the  sea.  The  climate  is 
almost  perpetual  summer. 
Snug  looking  country 
houses  lie  embosomed  in 
leafy  valleys,  and  trees 
and  flowering  shrubs  from 
almost  every  country 
grow  luxuriantly.”  And 
again.  “  If  you  stroll  out 
early  in  the  morning  you 
see  the  path  bordered 
with  Roses  glistening  with 
dew.  Fragrance,  light, 
colour,  are  everywhere. 
There  are  banks  of  wild 
P’uchsia  in  ruddy  bloom, 
great  bunches  of  Helio¬ 
trope,  with  Sweet  Briar 
and  Myrtle  ;  vigorous 
trees  of  red  and  white 
Camellia,  in  which  chil¬ 
dren  are  swinging,  or 
overladen  Peach  trees  in 
which  they  sit  eating  to 
their  heart’s  content.” 
Native  Flora. 
The  native  flora  of  St. 
Helena  when  occupied  by 
the  Portuguese  in  1501 
is  said  to  have  consisted 
of  some  fifty  species, 
twenty  -  three  of  which 
were  Ferns,  and  not  a 
single  Grass.  There  was 
a  belt  of  some  two  miles 
extending  round  the 
island,  on  which  grew  only  the  Salsola  salsa  (Camphire),  Commi- 
dendron  glutinosum,  and  the  Prickly  Pear  (Opuntia),  but  great  forests 
consisting  of  two  species  of  Dombeya  extended  from  this  belt  to  the 
interior.  These,  however,  have  now  receded  far  inland,  owing  to  the 
action  of  goats  and  insects  which  have  been  introduced,  and  can  still 
bs  noted  in  course  of  decay.  Among  other  native  plants  may  be 
mentioned  a  Frankenia,  a  Melissa,  Erodium  sempervivum,  Commi- 
dendron  rotundifolium,  Acalypna  rubra,  a  Patrobium,  a  Hedyotis,  two 
Nesiota^,  three  Wahleubergias  and  soma  composite  plants  called  locally 
“Gum-Wood”  and  “Cabbage  Trees.”  Dioksonia  arborescens  grows 
near  Diana  Peak,  and  in  places  the  rare  Dombeya  erythroxylon, 
with  its  red  and  white  pendent  flowers,  while  in  rocky  spots  the 
Phylica  rosmarinifolia  casts  a  shadow  iu  which  no  other  plant  is 
found  to  flourish. 
Imported  Flora. 
As  regards  the  imported  flora,  the  list  is  an  astonishing  one.  It 
includes  all  ordinary  English  vegetables  and  garden  fruits,  Peache.s 
Fig.  143. — Arum  LiL'flis  in  St.  Helena. 
