Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

S A I —S A I
171
flora which has been for generations the admiration and sorrow of
fhe boSt. According to Mr W. B. Helmsley (who has sum¬
marized all that is known on the matter in his report on the
hotanv of the Atlantic Islands),1 the certainly indigenous species
of plants are 65, the probably imiigenous 24, and^the^ doubtfully
indigenous 5 ; total 94. Of the 38 flowering plants 20 are shrubs
“ trfies With the exception of Scirpus nodosus, all the 38
a«ul£ to the island ; anf the same is true of 12 of the 27
vascular cryptogams (a remarkable proportion). Since the flora
hetran to be studied, two species—melanoxylon and
Aralvvha rubra—are known to have become extinct; and at least
uvo others have probably shared the same fate—ffehotropium
mennifolium and Demazeria obliterata. Mclhania melanoxylon, or
‘‘native ebony,” once abounded in parts of the island now barren ;
but the local legislation decided that goats were of more value
than ebony Its beautiful congener Melhania erythroxylon ( red¬
wood”) was still tolerably plentiful in 1810, but is now reduced
to a few specimens. Very rare, too, has become Pelargonium
cotyledonis, called “Old Father Live-for-ever,” from its retaining
vitality for months without soil or water. Commidendron robustum
(“fjumwood”), a tree about 20 feet high, once the most abundant
in the island, was represented in 1868 by about 1300 or 1400
examples ; and Commidendron rugosum (“scrubwood”) is confined
to somewhat limited regions. Both these plants are characterized
by a daisy-or aster-like blossom, which looks very strange on a
tree. In general the affinities of the indigenous flora of St Helena
were described by Sir Joseph Hooker as African, but Mr Bentham
points out that the important element of the Compositaz shows, at
least in its older forms, a connexion rather with South America.
The exotic flora introduced from nil parts of the world gives the
island almost the aspect of a botanic garden. The oak, thoroughly
naturalized, grows alongside of the bamboo and banana. As con¬
tributing largely to the general physiognomy of the vegetation
must be mentioned—the common English gorse ; Rubus pinnatus,
probably introduced from Africa about 1775 ; Hypochseris radicata,
which above 1500 feet forms the dandelion of the country ; the
beautiful but aggressive Buddleia madagascariensis ; Physails peru¬
viana ; the common castor-oil plant; and the pride of India. The
peepulis the principal shade tree in Jamestown, and in Jamestown
valley the date-palm grows freely. Orange and lemon trees, once
common, are now scarce. The attempt (1869-71) to introduce
cinchona cultivation failed. Potatoes are probably the staple pro¬
duction of the St Helena farmers, and as many as three crops per
annum are sometimes obtained.
The fauna of St Helena is only second in interest to its flora.
Besides domestic animals the only land mammals are rabbits,
rats, and mice, the rats being especially abundant and building
their nests in the highest trees. Probably the only endemic land
bird is the wire bird, JEgialitis sandse helenee ; the averdevat, Java
sparrow, cardinal, ground-dove, partridge (possibly the Indian
chukar), pheasant, and guinea-fowl are all common. The pea-fowl,
at one time not uncommon in a wild state, is long since extermi¬
nated. Though fresh water abounds in the island in the form of
springs, rivulets, and streams, there are no freshwater fish, beetles,
or shells. Of sixty-five species of sea-fish caught off the island seven¬
teen are peculiar to St Helena ; economically the more important
kinds are gurnard, eel, cod, mackerel, tunny, bullseye, cavalley,
flounder, hog-fish, mullet, and skulpin. Mr Wollaston, in Coleoptera
Sandae Hclcnse, 1877, shows that out of a total list of 203 species
of beetles 129 are probably aboriginal and 128 peculiar to the island,
—an individuality perhaps unequalled in the world. More than
two-thirds are weevils and a vast majority wood-borers, a fact which
bears out the tradition of forests having once covered the island.
The Hemiptera and the land - shells also show a strong residuum
of peculiar genera and species. A South - American white ant
{Termes tenuis, Hagen.), introduced from a slave-ship in 1840,
soon became a real plague at Jamestown, where a considerable
portion of the public library fell a prey to its voracity. The honey¬
bee, which throve for some time after its introduction, again died
out. (Comp. Wallace, Island Life.)
The population of St Helena was 6444 in 1871 and 5059 (2617
males, 2442 females) in 1881 ; it consists of Government officials,
of old-established residents (“ yamstalks ”) of somewhat composite
origin, European and Asiatic, and of the descendants of Negroes
landed from the West African slave-ships subsequent to 1840. The
only town—Jamestown (3000 inhabitants)—lies in a deep valley
on the north-west coast, and there is a village in the neighbouring
Rupert’s Valley. Ladder Hill, the seat of the garrison, is so called
from the almost precipitous ladder-like wooden stair by which its
height of 600 feet can be scaled. Longwood, where Napoleon died
in 18M, is a farmhouse in an elevated plain (2000 feet high), about
3| miles inland from Jamestown.
St Helena was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Joao
da Nova on the 21st of May 1501. The island received its first
known inhabitant in 1513 in the person of Fernandez Lopez, a
1 Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger, Botany, vol. i.
Portuguese of good family, who preferred being marooned to re¬
turning to Europe after the barbarous mutilation to which he had
been subjected for some misdemeanour. Cavendish (1588), Kendall
(1591), and Lancaster (1593) were the earliest English visitors.
The Dutch, who had for some time been in possession of the island,
withdrew in 1651, but on two occasions (1665 and 1673) managed
to expel the forces of the English East India Company, which had
at once seized the abandoned prize. The company, having procured
a second charter of possession on 16th December 1673, remained
the governing authority till 22d April 1834, when St Helena passed
into the hands of the British crown. In 1832 it had purchased
the freedom of the slaves (614) for £28,062. As a port of call the
island continued to prosper till the opening of the Suez Canal,
which, by altering the route to the East Indies, deprived the people
of their means of subsistence. The revenue has decreased from
£13,931 in 1874 to £10,421 in 1884, the expenditure from £14,521
to £10,806, the value of imports from £53,874 to £41,816, and of
exports from £4006 to £1436. Halley the astronomer in 1676 left
his name to Halley’s Mount; and Maskelyne and Waddington
visited the island in 1761.
See Seale, Geognosy of Saint Helena (folio plates), 1834; Brooke, History of
Saint Helena, 1808 and 1824; Beatson, Tracts, &c., 1816; Darwin, Geological
Observations on Volcanic Islands, 1844 ; Melliss, Saint Helena, 1875.
ST HELEN’S, a market-town and municipal and parlia¬
mentary borough of south-west Lancashire, England, is
situated on a branch of the London and North-Western
Railway, 21 miles west by south of Manchester and 10
east-north-east of Liverpool. It is the principal seat in
England for the manufacture of crown, plate, and sheet
glass, and has extensive copper smelting and refining
works, as well as chemical works, iron and brass foundries,
and potteries. There are collieries in the neighbourhood.
The town, which is entirely of modern origin, obtained a
charter of incorporation in 1868. A town-hall was erected
in 1873, and there are also a public library and various
institutes for affording instruction and amusement to the
working-class population. Extensive drainage works have
been carried out under a local Act. The corporation are
the owners of the waterworks and gasworks. Enfranchised
in 1885, St Helen’s returns one member to the House of
Commons. The population of the borough (area, 6586
acres) in 1871 was 45,134, and in 1881 it was 57,403.
ST HELIER. See Jersey, vol. xiii. p. 635.
SAINT-HILAIRE. See Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
SAINT-HILAIRE, Auguste de (1799-1853), French
botanist and traveller, was born at Orleans on 4th October
1799. He began to publish memoirs on botanical subjects
at an early age. In 1816-22 and in 1830 he travelled in
South America, especially in south and central Brazil, and
the results of his personal study of the rich flora of the
regions through which he passed appeared in several books
and numerous articles in scientific journals. These works
are most valuable from the copious information they afford
not only about the plants and other natural products but
also about the native races he encountered. Those by which
he is best known are the Flora Brasilia Meridionalis (3
vols. folio, with 192 coloured plates, 1825-32), published
in conjunction with A. de Jussieu and Cambessede, Histoire
des plantes les plus remarquables du Bresil et de Paraguay
(1 vol. 4to, 30 plates, 1824), Plantes usuelles des Bresiliens
(1 vol. 4to, 70 plates, 1827-28), also in conjunction with
De Jussieu and Cambessede, Voyage dans le district des
Diamants et sur le littoral du Bresil (2 vols. 8vo, 1833).
His numerous articles in journals deal largely with the plants
of Brazil and the general characters of its vegetation; but
Saint-Hilaire also aided much in establishing the natural
system of classification on the firm basis of structural
characters in the flowers and fruits; and that he recognized
the importance of the study of anomalies in this view is
shown in more than one of his writings. His Lemons de
Botanique, comprenant principalement la Morphologic Vege-
tale, published in 1840, is a very comprehensive and clear
exposition of botanical morphology up to 1840 and of its
application to systematic botany. He died at Orleans on
30th September 1853.