FLORA OF ST. CROIX AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. 7 



loba iirifera, Chrysobalanus Icaco, and Canella alba, besides the Cocos 

 nucifera, which is planted and naturalized, especially on the low sandy 

 seashore. Under these taller forms appear many kinds of shrubs, such 

 as Ecastopliyllum Brownei, Toumefortia gnaphalodes, Borricliia arbores- 

 cens, Ernodea litoralis, Suriana maritima, Erithalis fruticosa, Colubrina 

 ferruginosa, Guilandina Bonduc and Bonducella, and several others. 

 Still lower shrubs and suffrutescent herbs are Sccevola Plumieri, Tournc- 

 fortia gnaphalodes, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Heliotropium curassavicum, 

 Philoxcrus vermiculatus, CaJcile ccqualis, as well as several grasses and 

 sedges, as Sporobulus litoralis, Stenotaphrum americanum, and Cyperus 

 brunneus, as also some remarkable creepers or climbers, such as 

 Iponum pes-caprcv and Lablab vulgaris. 



Most of these species disappear on the rocky cliffs, where they give 

 room for others, mostly shrubs of a low growth, and with thicker or 

 more coriaceous leaves, that are able to resist the force of the wind, 

 which often bends the whole plant into a dwarfish individual, the 

 branches of which are cut off at the top in a western direction. The 

 most common of these shrubs are Jacquinia annularis, Elccodendron 

 xylocarpum, Plumieria alba, and Coccoloba punctata, as well as some 

 monocotyledonous plants, such as Pltcairnia angustifolia, Agave ameri- 

 cana, and a few Cacti, principally the stout Melocactus communis. 



Still more different forms appear where the coast becomes swampy 

 from the presence of lagoons. Here predominates the Mangrove forma- 

 tion, composed chiefly of Laguncularia racemosa, Gonocarpus erectus, Avi- 

 cennia nitida, and Rhizophora Mangle, which all grow more or less in the 

 water itself. In less moist places we find some others, such as Bucida 

 Buceras, Anona palustris, Antherylium BoJirii, and the curious Batis ma- 

 ritima, which recalls to the mind the halophytes of the steppes. 



However different these various forms of littoral plants may appear, 

 compared to each other, yet they all have in common the predilection 

 for the sea, the saline exhalation of which seems indispensable to their 

 growth. Some have even, like Avicennia, their leaves always covered 

 with small salt crystals ; others, like Batis maritima, are true halophytes, 

 and only very few of the plants of the coast in generality are found in the 

 interior even of these small islands. An exception is made by the cocoa- 

 nut palm, which is found growing all about on the islands, even on the 

 top of the highest hills, as also by Coccoloba uvifera, found in similar 

 localities. 



In passing from the coast into the interior we find on the eastern, and 



