424 Field Museum of Natural History — Botany, Vol. II 



drinkable water. From the largest of these holes at the northern third 

 of the islet a mound of weathered coral heads was heaped during its 

 excavation. This forms the only prominence on the surface of the cay 

 and is the habitat of a growth of cactus (Opuntia Toona) the seed of 

 which was doubtless dropped here by some resting bird. In like manner 

 a seed dropped from an arm of the little wooden cross marking the grave's 

 head accounts for the only plant of Scaevola Lobelia. The "wooden, 

 pyramidal framework 30 feet high" erected by this party at the south 

 end of the islet, mentioned in the U. S. Coast Pilot for 1896, had long 

 since disappeared as kindling for fishermen's cuddy fires. 



The main extent of the surface is densely clothed, about 8 in. deep, 

 with a level carpet of Sesuvium portulacastnun broken in only three 

 places by small patches of Sporobolus virginicus associated, in one in- 

 stance, with Portulaca oleracea; in another with Boerhaavia repens; 

 and in a third with Flaveria linearis which has scattered in among the 

 Sesuviimi as mentioned under the consideration of this species. The 

 whole of the south end is clothed with a nearly pure growth of the Sporo- 

 bolus in which a few plants of Atriplex cristata have foimd a rooting. 



The whole west, or weather, bank is lined with a fringe of Suriana 

 which exists without the admixture of any other species for the northern 

 two-thirds of its length; to the southward a few shrubs of Toumefortia 

 intermingle and still further south six climips of Conocarpus. Between 

 the Suriana fringe, on the top of the bank, and the wave line of the 

 narrow strand at the southern third, a scattering growth of the new 

 Caldle, intermixed further southward with Chamaesyce buxifolia, com- 

 pletes the flora of the west shore. The interspersed species of the toe 

 of the stocking-shaped islet, where boobies* evidently ahght during 

 fishing, were Cenchrus carolinianus, Portulaca oleracea and one individ- 

 ual each of Tribulus alacranensis and Cyperus brunneus. 



For some reason neither the booby nor the frigate-bird, prevalent 

 on the other cays, nest on this islet. The reason is not apparent to me 

 tmless mayhap the presence of the complete fringe of shrubbery on the 

 west shore may prove, in some way, inimical to them. 



Pajaros (Bird) Cay, the southeast islet of the shoal, is a low, pure 

 sand microcosm, rounded to the center, with the eastern or weather 

 shore line slightly banked and the western, or inner, beach sloping. It is 

 about 650 X 325 feet in extent. 



The distribution of plant species on its surface is in exact duplication 

 of that on Perez; Cakile and Chamaesyce on the beach line of the 

 weather shore and no plant life on the marge of the sloping strand. 



*Sula cyanops (Sunderval). 



