Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/133

 SAINT HELENA. 103 extremely rare, so that lightning-conductors are not even placed over powder- magazines. The heavy ground- swells break upon the north-west coast chiefly during the fine and calm months of January and February, as if nature were hushed to contemplate this tremendous crash of the o^cean billows. Flora, Thanks to its remoteness from all continental land, St. Helena had formerly a perfectly distinct flora. But several indigenous species, including the ebony, have disappeared, either uprooted by man, or destroyed by the goats and swine, or else choked by the intruding exotics. During the present century many have perished in this way, while others are found only in the gardens, from which they also threaten to disappear. Of seven hundred and forty-six flowering plants, now increased by three hundred fresh arrivals, Darwin reckoned only fifty-two native species, including a fine tree-fern and some heaths. But Melliss raised the number to seventy-seven, " representatives of an old world," which have now nearly all taken refuge on Diana Peak and the surrounding crests. The European oak, fir, and cypress succeed well, and amongst the industrial and alimentary plants are seen immigrants both from the torrid and temperate zones. The cultivation of cinchona has been abandoned, but the coffee and tea plants, sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, guava, banana, flourish in the same garden with the apple, pear, and vine, while the potato grows by the side of the yam and batata. Unfortunately the weeds of various countries have also invaded the island, and would have soon overrun the cultivated tracts but for the precautionary measures that had to be taken in the interest of the general good. Fauna. The indigenous fauna also differed from those of the two nearest continents, even comprising a land-bird {Charadrius pecuarius) unknown in all the other Atlantic islands. St. Helena is also one of the resting stations for the great sea- birds, such as the sea-eagle and the frigate, " which is all wing and which sleeps on the storm." The wild goats, very numerous during the early days of the colonisa- tion, have nearly been exterminated, so that the wild fauna is now reduced to the rat and rabbit, both very troublesome to the husbandman. The only reptiles are the centipede and scorpion, introduced probably through carelessness. Of ninety- six species of butterflies one half are indigenous, the others being common also to Africa and the Atlantic islands as far as the Azores. Eleven species of indigenous land molluscs still survive, all resembling without being identical with correspond- ing species in the Seychelles and Oceania. Many others occur on the uplands in a semi-fossil state, haying perished only since the destruction of the forests. The horse, ox, sheep, goat, pheasant, guinea-fowl, poultry, and other birds were introduced by the first Portuguese and Dutch settlers, and to these the English have added numerous other varieties, including the sparrows so destructive io cereals. Another pest is the termite, which was accidentally imported from Brazil