1889.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 349 



PROVISIONAL LIST OF THE PLANTS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 

 BY JOHN GARDINER, B. S. AND L. J. K. BRACE. 



Arranged with notes and additions by 



CHARLES S. DOLLEY, M. D. 



Introductory -Note. — The circumstances under which this Pro- 

 visional List was prepared are as follows: In the year 1886, I held 

 the post of Scientific Adviser to the Board of Agriculture -of the 

 Bahamas, and, in addition to my regular duties, was requested by 

 his Excellency, Governor H. A. Blake, to prepare a list of the flora 

 of the colony. I was directed to give the common names of the 

 plants and their medicinal and other uses ; this latter requirement 

 accounts for the frequently (to scientific readers) gratuitous in- 

 formation. At the same time, I was furnished with a list of the 

 plants of New Providence, prepared some years before by Mr. L. J. 

 K. Brace, a Nassau gentleman, afterwards (1886) an assistant in the 

 Botanical Gardens of Calcutta. • With this as a basis I prepared and 

 classified the following list. In the course of the year I visited 

 many of the "out-islands," and was enabled to make considerable 

 additions to Mr. Brace's list, which, however, was exceedingly use- 

 ful. I regret much that his name is not attached to the plants 

 whose occurrence he described ; this is due to the fact that I was 

 obliged to leave Nassau a month earlier than I had expected, and 

 before I could prepare a final copy of the list. 



It was intended that the list should be published by the Board of 

 Agriculture, whose property it was, but this was not done, owing to 

 the very small funds of the Board. Governor Blake placed it in 

 the hands of my friend Prof. Charles S. Dolley, who has made 

 numerous additions to it, and to whom is due the credit of its present 

 publication. 



The list' is called " Provisional " mainly because it is not backed 

 throughout by herbarium specimens, though in any case it must 

 have been incomplete. Prof. Dolley has placed in the herbarium 

 and green-house of the University of Pennsylvania specimens cov- 

 ering nearly all his additions, and the plants listed as having been 

 collected by Prof. Herrick, are represented by herbarium specimens. 

 (Johns Hopkins Univ. Circ, Vol. VI, No. 18, p. 46.) 



Herborization in so damp a climate as that of the Bahamas is 

 attended with some difficulties, which are considerablv increased 



