394 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



L. H. Pammel, of the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, 

 Iowa, under whose advice and direction the whole work has 

 been done, my most heartfelt thanks and gratitude are due. 



The full credit of the determinations, except the Loran- 

 thaceae which were determined by Dr. I. Urban of Berlin, is 

 due to Mr. J. M. Greenman of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard 

 University, whose notes and descriptions are placed in quota- 

 tion marks, and to whom I am deeply grateful for manu- 

 script and suggestions as well as for his arduous labor in 

 determining these plants for me. The drawings for the 

 plates illustrating the new and interesting plants were made 

 under my direction by Miss Charlotte M. King, artist for the 

 Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, to whom much credit 

 is due. 



RELATIONS OF THE FLORA. 



The flora of Cuba is interesting, not only for its great 

 number of endemic types, but also for the striking characters 

 of those types, their occurrence, distribution and economic 

 uses. The flora belongs to the neotropic region, which is 

 noted for being rich in strange and characteristic animals 

 peculiar to this part of the world ; therefore one might expect 

 to find its plants also striking and peculiar, which to a certain 

 degree is true. Cuba, being in the northeast corner of the 

 neotropic realm, besides having the general important charac- 

 ters of the region as a whole, has striking endemic 

 peculiarities. 



A comparison of its flora with that of its near neighbor, 

 Florida, shows a greater difference than a comparison of the 

 florf.s of Florida and Canada, while a comparison with far off 

 Central and South Americas shows it to be almost identical 

 with them in general character. This fact, from a superficial 

 point of view, is strange indeed, but considering the geological 

 and geographical relations that Cuba has to those countries, 

 it is what one would expect. 



Cuba, with the whole of the Greater Antilles, was at one 

 time probably connected with the continent, South and Cen- 

 tral American, and the land has since subsided, leaving only 



