COLLINS. THE ALGAE OP JAMAICA. 237 



The island of Jamaica is situated in the Caribbean Sea, between lat. 

 17.40 and 18.30 N. and between long. 76.10 and 78.28 W. from Green- 

 wich. The land vegetation is distinctly tropical in character, though the 

 high land of the interior, and the steady sea breezes of the eastern coast, 

 make the climate more comfortable than might be expected from the 

 latitude. The marine flora is also of a tropical character, as is showu 

 by the number of species of the Dictyotales, and of green algae of the 

 Caulerpaceae, Codiaceae, Valoniaceae, and Dasycladaceae, as also by the 

 absence of any representative of the Lamiuariuceae. Coral abounds all 

 along the shore, and the coral reefs are often richly overgrown with 

 algae. 



The following notes by Mrs. Pease give an idea of the character of the 

 shore and the conditions for collecting algae ; occasionally throughout the 

 list that follows similar notes by Mrs. Pease on special localities or forms 

 will be inserted, enclosed, like this, in quotation marks. 



" The island of Jamaica is scalloped with beautiful little bays or har- 

 bors, and a description of one will apply to nearly all of them. The semi- 

 circular shores of these bays, about which the little villages cluster, are 

 usually low for only a very short distance back from the water ; then they 

 rise abruptly into steep hills or mountains. From one to several small 

 rivers empty into each of these bays; the shores are often of 'tufa,' 

 a porous rock, very trying to a pedestrian, but sometimes relieved by 

 little stretches of sandy beach. . . . 



" At Port Antonio, which was visited at each of our trips, the harbor 

 is varied by having a small island lying at its entrance, and by a bold 

 point of land running out to break the shore into two little scallops 

 instead of one, one of the bays being barred by a coral reef, the other 

 having a very narrow channel for the entrance of vessels. This reef was 

 the best collecting ground at this place; the water was shallow for quite 

 a distance, and on jagged rocky bottom, the water about waist deep, 

 we found a very luxuriant growth. Caulerpa clavifera grew like little 

 clusters of green grapes, in big soggy masses; there were great clumps 

 of the encrusted algae, Halimedas, Amphiroas, Galaxauras, Cymopolias, 

 etc. ; these continued up towards the shore, and with them upon the 

 rocks were those green, warty, potato-ball-like Dictyosphaerias, Padina, 

 Colpomenia sinuosa, and Anadyomene stellata. Still nearer the shore, 

 the water flattened out to nothing, and the bottom was sand, like pow- 

 dered shell. Corallina still grew here, but the others dropped out, and 

 Caulerpa ericifolia and C. plumaris covered the bottom, as club mosses 

 grow in the woods. We searched here in vain for a long time for Peni- 



