532 Taylor. Endemism in the Bahama Flora. 



sea-water in several islands), and the saline soil conditions in many others 

 are reflected in a generally depressed vegetation with many adjustments to 

 prevent transpiration. A field study of the origin and distribution of the 

 flora of Inagua and some of the limiting factors would throw much light on 

 this problem. The study of the records of 'The Bahama Flora' shows 

 Inagua to be higher in endemic species than any other island in the 

 archipelago. It is the largest land mass of any of the isolated islands, and 

 there is in the interior of it a good-sized salt lake and savannah region. 

 These combinations of special conditions, reflected in its flora as they are 

 known to be, make it worth additional field study. 



Summary. 



Endemism on it, and in fact throughout the archipelago, appears to be 

 the response of vegetation to these peculiar conditions of soil, lack of rainfall 

 for a region only 70 miles from the rain-forest of northern Cuba and Haiti, 

 regular and rather strong trade winds, punctuated by violent hurricanes in 

 the opposite direction, and by certain other factors. In Inagua, more than 

 anywhere else in the archipelago, the sum of these factors has produced 

 endemic species. As has been shown, the distribution and growth form 

 of these endemic species does not differ materially from the non- 

 endemic ones. 



The comparatively short time in which this endemic flora must have 

 been developed, its method of transportal from island to island or from the 

 mainland, these and other matters regarding the distribution of the Bahama 

 endemics need further field study. Such a study should include Inagua for 

 reasons that need not be repeated here. 



Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 

 Brooklyn, N.Y. 



Literature. 



Agassiz, A. (1894) : Reconnaissance of the Bahama Islands. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard 



Coll., xxvi. 1-203. 

 Geographical Society of Baltimore (1905) : The Bahama Islands, pp. 1-630. 

 Sinnott, E. W. (1917) : The ' Age and Area ' Hypothesis and the Problem of Endemism. Ann. 



Bot., xxxi. 210-16. 

 , and Bailey, T. W. (1914): The Origin and Dispersal of Herbaceous Angio- 



sperms. Ibid., xxviii. 547-600. 

 Taylor, N. (1916) : Endemism in the Flora of the Vicinity of New York. Torreya, xvi. 18-27. 

 Willis, J. C. (1915) : The Endemic Flora of Ceylon, with Reference to Geographical Distribution 



and Evolution in general. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, Series B, ccvi. 307-42. 

 (1916) : The Evolution of Species in Ceylon, with Reference to the Dying Out of 



Species. Ann. Bot., xxx. 1-23. 



(1917) : The Relative Age of Endemic Species and other Controversial Points. Ibid., 



xxxi. 1S9-208. 



