REPORT ON THE BAHAMA CERIONS PLANTED ON THE 



FLORIDA KEYS. 



BY PAUL BARTSCH. 



In the annual report of the Director of the Department of Marine 

 Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for 1912 (Year Book 

 No. 11, pages 129-131), attention was called to the transplanting of a 

 large number of two races of Bahama cerions to the Florida Keys. In 

 Year Book No. 12 (1913) of the same Institution, a report of the results 

 of the planting of Bahama cerions on the Florida Keys was made, on 

 pages 169-172. In 1914 these plantations were visited at the end of 

 April and the following results were noted. I shall first report on the 

 conditions of the colonies in the various plantings, and then discuss 

 the adult offspring grown in the various colonies. 



April 21, 1914- We visited the plantation which had been made 

 in 1912, on the second Ragged Key north of Sands Key, and gathered 

 170 planted specimens, all but one of which were alive and seemed to 

 be thriving; 55 of their offspring were also found, three full-grown 

 (plate 3, the first 3 figures of the left-hand side of bottom row) ; the 

 others varied in size from nepionic whorls to half-grown. We returned 

 the original lot and two of the young to the spot, taking the 3 adults 

 for the collection of the U. S. National Museum, at Washington. In 

 order to isolate the generations and in the hope of starting a new 

 colony, 50 of the young were planted in a grassy spot about 62 feet 

 northeast from the old planting ; this planting was marked with a short 

 stake and a piece of drift bamboo was put in an old stump near the 

 place. The members of this colony have moved but little beyond 

 their limits of last year. 



On the first Ragged Key north of Sands Key someone had built a 

 house in the midst of our plantation. Our cerions were clinging to the 

 walls of the house and to bushes and grass near it. We gathered 144 

 of the original planting, all living, and placed them near the northwest 

 corner of the house. We also collected 50 young, which, like those 

 found on the last key, varied from mere tips to half-grown. Not one 

 full-grown individual produced on this key was found. We took the 

 50 young to Sands Key, in order to start a new colony with this genera- 

 tion, and planted them in the middle of the first sand stretch south of 

 the north end, on the seaward side. The place is marked by an old 

 skinned and bleached white tree, which forms a conspicuous landmark 



205 



