300 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



with the wastes of Margarita. This northern island is perhaps in a 

 condition midway between that of the coast and coastal islands of 

 Venezuela and that of Trinidad, the former being in a condition of 

 drought and the latter in a state of excessive moisture for much of the 

 year. In regard to the species of plants, there is of course a vast 

 difference. Professor Urban's Flora Portoricensis is very complete 

 so far as published. In it are sixty-one plants to be found on Marga- 

 rita, although the author does not refer more than twenty-five to the 

 island, these references being only from my first collection of plants. 

 As many as this is naturally to be expected from the wide distribution 

 of many of the plants. Moreover, there are fully five hundred plants 

 of INIargarita not to be found on Porto Rico, and of course many 

 more on the much larger island not on Margarita. 



In the small Cayman Islands farther west in the region of the Great 

 Antilles there is also a diversity from Margarita. These islands con- 

 sist of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brae, two hun- 

 dred and eighty-nine kilometers (180 mi.) northwest of Jamaica and 

 about the same distance south of the center of Cuba. Grand Cayman 

 is twenty-seven kilometers from east to west, six to eight wide at the 

 eastern end and eleven to thirteen kilometers (7 to 8 mi.) wide at the 

 western end. There is no elevation exceeding fifty meters (150 ft.). 

 Some forest land is present, and in the center is considerable boggy 

 soil suggesting the presence of sufficient moisture for much vegetative 

 growth. Collections of plants have been made on the Caymans by 

 Professor C. F. Millspaugh and by Mr. W. Fawcett. From the total 

 of two hundred and twenty-eight species constituting these lists eighty- 

 four are found on Margarita. Five hundred and eighty Margaritan 

 plants are not found on the Caymans. This suggests a distinctly 

 different flora notwithstanding the presence of so many plants of wide 

 distribution. This difference can be accounted for partially in the 

 vegetative conditions, but in the main it is due to geographical position, 

 the Cayman Islands being some seventeen hundred kilometers north- 

 west of Margarita. IVIoreover in comparing the flora of the Cayman 

 with that of the other Venezuelan islands or with Trinidad the same 

 result is obtained. 



It is impossible to make a definite comparison of the plants of 

 Jamaica and Cuba with those of Margarita, for the lists are so incom- 

 plete. It must suffice to say that from the material available for com- 

 parison it is certain that a very large part of the plants of Jamaica and 



