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the formations at the level of the sea, are more effaced, and each 

 particular formation therefore sometimes more difficult to keep 

 apart. 



A factor, which highly marks the West Indian coast vegetation, 

 is the wind, where no special conditions prevent it from affect- 

 ing the vegetation. In my earlier paper I have emphasized how 

 trees and bushes in the 6'occo/o6«-Manchineel formation, on account 

 of the strong trade-wind blowing always from the same direction, 

 are cut off quite slopingly and the branches dead on the wind- 

 blown side. In the West Indies the wind is blowing essentially 

 from the East, especially North-East, but often too in a little more 

 southern direction, with the result that its influence on the shape 

 of the trees is particularly distinct, as the stem and the crown, 

 when much exposed, are bent away from the wind: on the north 

 side of the islands in a south western direction, and on the 

 southern side of the islands distinctly, though more slightly, in 

 western direction. In particularly exposed localities, not only 

 bushes but even a tree so hardened against the wind as the 

 manchineel {Hippomane mancinella L.) can be laid prostrate on 

 the ground. I will discuss this point later on. 



In my earlier paper I have already mentioned the burning 

 heat and the glaring light of the coasts, and I have emphasized 

 that the vegetation in the fresh trade-wind, and in connection with 

 these factors, is liable to a very strong transpiration and is there- 

 fore in various ways protected against it. 



A. The Hydrophyte Vegetation. 

 I. The muddy and sandy soil vegetation. 



1. The Seagrass (and Algae) formation. 

 (Cfr. Burgesen, 1898, p. 3: 190(J, p. 2.) 



About this formation I have not much to add, beyond what 

 I have already mentioned in my earlier paper. It consists of the 

 following 5 sea-phanerogams: Cymodocea manatorum Ascheis., Halo- ^: 

 dule Wrif/htii Aschers., Thalassia testudiniim Sol., Halophila Baillonis _ 

 Aschers. and Hahphila Asehersonii Ostenf. 



What in my earlier paper was called Halophila Engelmanni 

 Aschers., has, after Ostenfeld's examination, turned out to be 



14* 



