122 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. [XX.2,3&4. 



A communication was then sent to the Director of Agriculture 

 in Mauritius who replied " The while BougsmviUaea does not occur 

 in Mauritius. I have made inquiries from a number of horticultural 

 amateurs here, one of whom states that he recollects having seen 

 mention of a white Bougainvillaea having been found m the forests 

 of Trinidad ! ! ! " 



Here the matter ended for some time until a vis tor passmg 

 through Trinidad informed Mr. W. G. Freeman that hs remembered 

 seemg a white Bougamvillaea m Cuba. 



On writing to Dr. R. M. Gray, Superintendent o? the Botanical 



Gardens of Harvard University at Soledad Cienfuegos, Cuba, he 



stated, "we have no white Bougainvillaea, our small plant having died. ' 



From this it would appear t' at there are grounds for supposing 



that a white Bougainvillaea exists. 



When at Kew in 1919 I made a search in the library with the 

 hope of finding some record of such a plant, but without success. 

 In going through a monograph of the genus with Mr. Skan vve 

 did however find mention of species with unfamiliar coloured bracts. 

 The following were amongst those noted ; 



B. Lmdleyana, bracts cinnabar coloured. 



B. stipitata, bracts first greenish, then brownish or pale 



yellowish to straw colour, from the Argentine. 

 B. infesta, bracts dirty brownish. 

 B. modesta, bracts yellowish green, from Bolivia. 

 B. Malmeana, bracts lively pale yellowish, from Brazil. 

 B. praecox, bracts brown, from the Argentine. 

 B. berkeridiaejolia, bracts pale brownish, from Bolivia. 



No plants of any of these species were under cultivation in Kew 

 Gardens. 



It still remains therefore, for someone to find and introduce a 

 white bracted Bougainvillaea to Trinidad and to anyone attempting a 

 continuation of the search care must be taken in instituting inquiries 

 that confusion does not arise between the form with the whitish 

 variegated leaves already mentioned and a species with white bracts — 

 the desired plant. 



Since the above was written a gentleman informed me that a 

 friend had brought flowering sprays of a white Bougainvillaea from 

 Dominica, but on writing to Mr. J. Jones, Curator of the Botanic 

 Gardens, with long experience in Dominica he informed me that he 

 had never seen the plant and was doubtful as to its existence there. 

 These continued erroneous reports of the existence of this plant 

 makes one wonder whether a plant of some other genus is not being, 

 confused with the white Bougainvillaea. 



