28 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



his Flora, containing additions and corrections, but no dis- 

 covery of importance is noted, except the curious new 

 genus, Eggersia buxifolia (Nyctagineae), previously pub- 

 lished elsewhere (9), and first discovered by the author in 

 the island of St. Thomas. It is a small apparently ever- 

 green shrub with small leaves and exceedingly small flowers, 

 singularly unlike anything else in the order. 



Continuing in a westward direction we next come to 

 Porto Rico. 



There is an unfinished descriptive work on the Flora of 

 Porto Rico, written in Spanish (10); and, as no continuation 

 has appeared, so far as I can ascertain, since 1 888, it is not 

 probable that it will ever be completed. It includes the 

 natural orders Ranunculaceae to Gesneracese, and is the 

 work of an enthusiastic amateur, and doubtless serviceable 

 on the spot, though not so critically worked out as might 

 be wished. Another Spanish work (11) should be men- 

 tioned, although of somewhat earlier date, because it con- 

 tains descriptions of two or three proposed new genera and 

 some sixty species, though, truth to say, it is even less 

 critical than the preceding. Any plant the author was 

 unable to identify with a published description or figure he 

 described on his own account ; consequently it is not worth 

 while repeating his names here. Some of the plants were 

 verified by Dr. Kranzlin and others, at Berlin, notably 

 the orchids and ferns, three of the former being described 

 as new. The proposed new genera are : Stahlia ( Le- 

 guminosse), Homonoma (Melastomaceae) and Atelandra 

 (Myrsinese). 



Hayti, or San Domingo, is the least known botanically 

 of the larger West Indian Islands, yet it was the scene of 

 Father Plumier's labours at the end of the seventeenth 

 century and the beginning of the eighteenth. The un- 

 settled condition of the inhabitants has doubtless had some- 

 thing to do with this. Several botanists, however, have 

 collected in the island within the last ten years, but no 

 consolidated account of the results of their labours has 

 appeared. Baron Eggers visited the island in 1887, and 

 made considerable collections ; and he gave an account (12) 



