(Vol. W¥., No. 2.) BULLETIN OF THR TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. New York, February, 1873, , 
AMARYLLIDACEA, 
HYPOXYS, L.—H. erecta, L.; common; N. Y. 
HAEMODORACE. 
ALETRIS, L.—A. farinosa, L.; New York and New Jersey, Zorr. Cuat.; 
Closter, common, Austin ; Keyport, Brown ; Jamaica ; Staten 
Island; Chatham, N. J., ete. 
; IRIDACE. 
IRIS, L..—I, versicolar, L.; common; N. ¥.—I. Virginiea, L.; Closter; 
: common, Austin; Hackensack meadows ; Long Island, State 
Flora, Miller, Coles, Ruger. 
PARDANTHUS, Ker.—P, Chinensis, Ker.; Preakness, Ficher ; between 
Jamaica and Middleville, 8. 8. R. R., L. 1, Ruger. 
SISYRINCHIUM, L.—S. Bermudiana, L.; common; N. Y¥.; with white flow- 
ers, 8. 8. R. R., near Jamaica, Ruger. 
DIOSCOREACEZ. 
DIOSCOREA, Plumier.—D, villosa, L.,; common; N. Y. 
8, Trees and Rain.—[In Vol. III, No. 8, was a short but very inter- 
esting account of the desiccation of the Island of Santa Cruz, W. I. 
r. Merriam, the writer, has kindly sent us the following communi- 
Cation from the friend who was his authority for the facts. The 
story of the Lake of Valentia is not new but very apposite, and on 
account of the importance of the subject, may claim repetition even 
in our limited space. } ae 
Your brief published statement concerning the diminution in the 
rainfall of the Island of Santa Cruz is in the main correct, save that 
it gives the idea of a more rapid change than has probably taken 
place. At my former visit, twenty-seven years ngo, the desiccation 
had undoubtedly made some progress, but it had not been sufficient 
to make itself manifest in.a very marked degree. 
The change from fertility to barrenness, which at first must have 
been almost imperceptible, is no doubt taking place in an accelerat- 
ing ratio. Every new plantation swallowed up by the onward 
march of desolation, augments the cause, and renders the arrest of 
the evil more and more hopeless. _This movement is from the East, 
(the windward end of the island,) towards the West, and is now 
quite conspicuous. Every few years an estate, formerly green with 
cane fields, becoming incapable of producing further crops, has to 
be abandoned to the graziers, whose cattle find a meagre pasture 
upon it a few seasons longer. These are in turn driven off, and the 
land is entirely given Up. _ Henceforward it becomes, if not quite a 
desert, at least a barren waste, producing only a sparse and prickly 
vegetation, over which a few arborescent cacti reign supreme. A 
narrow belt of green lines the sea shore of this region, consisting of 
cocoa-nut palms, the poisonous Manchineel, the sea side grape, and 
a few shrubs, whose natural habitat is along the high water mark; 
but, inland, cultivation is impossible without constant irrigation. 
As there are no streams upon the island, with the exception of a 
few rills chiefly near the western end, and the wells are failing, no 
orce life from the unwilling soil. Some attempts 
means remain to fo: the unwill 
were at one {ime made to arrest this insidions advance, but too late 
