JOHNSTON: FLORA OF MARGARITA ISLAND. 299 



Close to the mainland but yet not considered one of the Venezuelan 

 Islands is Trinidad Ipng to the northeast of Venezuela. In general 

 the flora and vegetative conditions of the island are similar to those 

 of the mainland. There is a large collection of well identified plants 

 at the St. Clair experiment station at Port-of-Spain and I had the 

 opportunity of comparing my first collection with them. From this I 

 foimd that one hundred and seventy-nine ^Nlargaritan plants were not 

 in the Trinidad herbarium and one hiuidred and sixty-one were there. 

 Unfortunately it has been impossible for me to compare the remainder 

 of my plants. Of those plants that were not in the Herbarium the 

 majority were of wide distribtition. Of the plants of restricted 

 distribution, however, the greater number were Venezuelan rather 

 than pertaining to the West Indies. 



Trinidad presents a distinct contrast in the appearance of its vegeta- 

 tion to that of the islands of the north coast. The latter are dry as 

 is the adjacent coast. Trinidad, however, resembles and is really a 

 part of the east coast, characterized, by low land, well watered, and 

 heavily wooded. Thus appears the east coast of Venezuela and of 

 British Guiana, green with luxin-iant vegetation, broken here and 

 there, to be sure, with sandy stretches and low hills, but in effect with 

 a truly tropical verdure. Trinidad has a series of hills across the low 

 end of the island and a range of low mountains across the northern 

 end. The regions about these hills are in many places heavily covered 

 with forests. Across the middle of the island is a belt of almost 

 unbroken savannah land much used for grazing and for cane crops. 

 Both on the eastern and on the western side are extensive swamp 

 lands. Only in isolated and restricted areas are there any arid dis- 

 tricts at all resembling those of Margarita. 



The entire chain of small islands extending from Trinidad north- 

 ward is with few and unimportant exceptions similar in vegetative 

 conditions to Trinidad. For the most part they consist of well culti- 

 vated plains and green-clad hills and mountains. Porto Rico at the 

 northern end of this chain of islands and the easternmost of the Great 

 Antilles presents features somewhat different. With the exception 

 of a narrow plain about the island, the surface of Porto Rico is tm- 

 dulating and broken into sharp hills and ridges from one end to the 

 other. In marked contrast to Trinidad, Porto Rico has very little 

 forest land and only a few small savannahs. Moreover, the waste 

 lands, barren or cactus-covered, along the south shore are comparable 



