298 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



All of these islands extending along the north coast of Venezuela 

 not only resemble each other very much but they are also like the 

 coast of the mainland. There are to be found much the same species 

 constituting the seashore flora, the flora of the lagoon, of the wild 

 cactus-covered hills, and of the few fertile coconut valleys. This is 

 well illustrated by almost any part of the north coast. Carupano is 

 in a long narrow valley with arid hills on each side. Cumana is on a 

 sandy plain at the foot of the hills. Guanta is in a small valley with 

 the appearance of a perpetual drought on every side. La Guaira 

 is on a hillside by the edge of the sea and the hill is a brown and sun- 

 baked exposure although it is broken here and there by green valleys 

 and by a green mountain rising above. A short way inland but 

 still in the coastal region between Caracas and Valencia and about 

 the Lake of Valencia trees are scarce or lacking, the mountains are 

 brown and clothed only in small shrubs or in dry grass, and in the 

 valley are scorching sandy plains with here and there the shade of a 

 tree. 



These islands are similar to the coastal land as naturally they 

 should be, having been in early times a part of the coast and yet thcjre 

 is a vast country behind the coast to which they are not at all like. 

 The mountain region of the Andes, anywhere from one thousand to 

 four thousand meters high, the grassy plains of the Orinoco, and the 

 forests to the south present features vastly different in every respect. 

 Unfortunately our knowledge of their flora is very limited. Many 

 plants were described as new from Humboldt's travels, but since that 

 time there have been few collections and fewer plants described. It 

 is krK)'s\ai that there are many plants which are common to the rest of 

 the tropics. Altogether our information is one-sided as tending to 

 show the cosmopolitan rather than the characteristic plants. I hav(i 

 compiled a list of all the published names of Venezuelan plants W'hich 

 comprises some three thousand names. That some of these are 

 names which may not be in good standing today cannot be denied, 

 but I have at least made reasonably sure that they represent nearly 

 three thousand different species. 



Out of the six hundred and thirty-four Margaritan plants two 

 hundred and ninety-five have not been published as occurring any- 

 where else in Venezuela. Inasmuch as many of these are cosmopolitan 

 plants it shows not the peculiarity of the Margaritan flora but the small 

 amount of work that has been done on the mainland. 



