350 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



when the work has to be done on board of a 20-ton sponging 

 schooner. I found, too, that other duties of more practical use to 

 the colony left but little time for this, so I adopted the plan of col- 

 lecting what plants I could, and diagnosing them while still fresh 

 by the aid of Grisebach, and Maout and Decaisne (Hooker's Ed.), 

 not making any attempt to preserve the specimens, as a rule. This, 

 of course, would have been simply inexcusable if the making up of 

 a Bahama Flora had been my main duty. Thus the list is neces- 

 sarily very imperfect, and much in need of confirmation. 



The islands from which the most interesting results are to be 

 expected, when they are explored, are Andros, Bimini, Inagua, with 

 Mayaguana and Atwood's Cay. Andros (really a group of islands) 

 contains many fresh-water ponds in its northern half. I visited it, 

 with instructions to investigate its agricultural capabilities, a month 

 after I arrived in the colony (1885), when everything was quite 

 new t<» me, and before my books, etc., had arrived. I was unable 

 ever to visit it again ; but it is pretty certain that good results may 

 be obtained from its exploration. Bimini is on the margin of the 

 Gulf Si ream, and I expected interesting "finds" there, but my 

 books were lost overboard in landing, and I was unable to identify 

 what new plants I saw. Its waters are rich zoologically, and on 

 account of its position it deserves botanical investigation. Inagua 

 and the two small islands mentioned are separated from the rest of 

 the archipelago by deep "ocean" water. I made two separate 

 attempts to reach them, but was foiled, once by bad weather, the 

 other time by the theft of my schooner by a Haytian negro. 

 Atwood's Cay is said to possess a small mammal, the Utia or Outi 

 (Capromyx) not elsewhere found in the colony ; and during my time 

 in the Bahamas, a living alligator was washed ashore on a log. of 

 mahogany at Inagua, having probably come from Hayti. Reason- 

 ing bv analogy, these islands ought to be interesting botanicallv. 



The distribution of natural orders in the different islands would be 

 worth attention. I was not able to pay much attention to this, and 

 the book in which I had made some notes on the subject was lost at 

 Bimini ; but such facts as the restriction of the Bahama Pine to the 

 northern islands (Abaco, Bahama, Berry Islands, New Providence 

 and the northern half of Andros), and the greater number and 

 variety of Cacteae in the more southerly islands indicate what there 

 is to be done. Roughly speaking, the flora of the northern islands 

 generally resembles that of Bermuda (cf. Bulletin No. 25, II. S. 



