O r b e r C r in o id e a (or Feather-stars).
Comatula, Lamck.
*C. sp. ?—This very pretty, purple, feathery creature, not unlike
the head of a miniature palm-tree, is occasionally taken from the
pools of sea-water on the West rocks, and other parts of the coast.
I found one specimen at Lemon Valley, but it is extremely rare.
VI. INFUSORIA.
C LA S S I .— IN F U S O R IA .
Under this head, search has yet to be made at St. Helena.
VII. PROTOZOA.
C LA S S I .— S P O N G ID A .
There is a small brown Sponge, seen growing in the pools of seawater
on the coast, which does not attain to any size. Pieces of
it as large as a cricket-ball are frequently picked up on the sea
beaches. Through the kindness of Professor Dickie, it has been
examined by Dr. Bowerbank, who says “ it belongs to the genus
Hali&ponffia of De Blainville. The characters are the same as those
of the coarse sponges of commerce from the West Indies.”
PART IV. —BOTANY.
A m o s t interesting subject for investigation is afforded by the Botany
of the Island. The plants growing there at the present time number
about 1048; for the presence of the larger portion of these, it is not
difficult to account, they having followed through a period of three
hundred and seventy-two years in the track of man and civilization
; but a most interesting question as to their origin is dictated
by the remaining 77 species, which form a remnant of that Flora
characteristic of the little lonely oceanic spot previous to man s first
visit there.
This most wonderfully curious little Flora, which has been aptly
termed “ a fragment from the wreck of an ancient world, was
made a prominent subject in a very able and highly interesting lecture
upon Insular Floras, delivered before the British Association for
the Advancement of Science at Nottingham in 1866. In that lecture
Dr. Hooker, in reference to St. Helena, with its indigenous Flora,
says: “ When discovered, about 860 years ago, it was entirely
covered with forests, the trees drooping over the tremendous precipices
that overhang the sea. Now all is changed, fully 5-6ths of
the Island are utterly barren, and by far the greater part of the vegetation
that exists, whether herbs, shrubs, or trees, consists of introduced
European, American, African, and Australian plants. The
indigenous Flora is almost confined to a few patches towards the
summit of Diana s Peak, the central ridge, 2700 feet above the sea.
“ The destruction of the Madeira forests, you will remember, was
by fire. A much more insidious agency has operated with tenfold
greater effect in St. Helena—viz., goats. These were introduced in
1513, and multiplied so rapidly, that in 1588 Captain Cavendish
states that they existed in thousands, single flocks being almost a
mile long.
I In 1709, trees still abounded, and one, the native Ebony, in such
quantities, that i t was used to burn lime with. At this time, however
the Governor of the Island reported to the Court of Directors