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1889.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 1 •>' 



posed coral rock, to find in the minute interstices, between the com- 

 ponent grains, actively living protococei, sometimes at a depth of tz 

 -i of an inch. Undoubtedly these little plants have much to do 

 with the rapid breaking down of the rock surface. 



The list of plants was in its original shape placed at his service 

 by Sir Alfred Blake then Governor of the Bahamas. 



The speaker had been able to add quite a number of species from 

 his own collections made for the University of Pennsylvania, 1 

 from a list of plants collected by Prof. F. H. Herrick 2 and from 

 collections made by his friend Dr. Anna H. Searing, of Rochester, 

 New York. While the botany of the Bermudas has been well 

 worked up, 3 no extensive lists have before been prepared for the 

 Bahamas, and he therefore felt justified in presenting the paper re- 

 corded by title this evening. 



The celebrated botanist Andre Michaux visited these islands over 

 one hundred years ago, and sent to France over nine hundred trees and 

 twenty boxes of seeds. No record exists of these other than this fact, re- 

 corded in Michaux's journals. Lists and specimens of many valuable 

 woods and textile plants were sent to the colonial exhibition, 4 

 together with a series of over sixty beautiful life-size, water-color 

 paintings of many of the more interesting plants made by Mrs. 

 Blake. From time to time notes and reports have been published 

 on special agricnltural plants 5 and references to the more striking 

 plants occur in the various popular accounts of the Bahamas 

 and in the various works on the history of these islands. The larger isl- 

 ands, such as Abaco and Andras, could supply much valuable tim- 

 ber, were it not for the difficulty of bringing it from the interior to 

 the harbors. Although surface soil is very scant throughout the is- 

 lands, the difficulty of cultivation does not consist so much in 



1 Vid. Preliminary Abstract Report of the Marine Laboratory, Ann. Report of 

 the Provost lor 1887. 



2 Flora of Abaco and Adjoining Islands, Tohns Hopkins Univ. Circ, Vol. vi, 

 p. 46. 



3 The Botany of the Bermudas by Sir John Henry Lefroy, F. R. S., Bull. U. 

 S. Nat. Mus., No. 25, Part II, 1884.' 



Plants of the Bermudas, or Somers Islands, by Oswald A. Reade, Royal 

 Gazette Office, Hamilton, Bermuda, 188-5. 



On the Lichens of the Islands of the Atlantic Ocean (Bermuda) Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. (Botany), Vol xiv, p. 366, by J. Stirton. 



On the Lichens collected during the Challenger Expedition, ibid., xvi. by J 

 M. Crombie. 



Notes on the Vegetation of the Bermudas. On the Marine Algae of St. 

 Thomas and the Bermudas, by H. N. Moseley, ibid., xiv, p. 311, 317. 



On the Marine Algce of St. Thomas and the Bermudas by George Dickie, 

 ibid., Vol. xiv, p. 312. 



4 Commercial and Technical Report on West Indian and British Honduras 

 Products at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886. Wm. Clowes and Son, 

 London. 



5 Local Notes on Science and Agriculture, Four Series, Nassau Guardian, 

 1886, by John Gardiner. Report on the Agricultural condition and prospects. 

 of the Bahamas, Nassau N. P. April 17, 1886, by John Gardiner. 



