FLORA OF ST. CROIX AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. I 



hha nrifcra, Chrysobalanus Icaco, and Canclla alba, besides tlie Cocoa 

 micifera, which is planted and iiatiiralized, especially on the low sandy 

 seashore. Tinder these taller forms appear many kinds of shrubs, such 

 as Ecastophylhim Broicnei, Tourncfortia gnaphalodes, Borrlchia arbores- 

 cens, Ernodea litoralis, Suriana maritima, ErithaJis fruticosa, Colubrina 

 ferruginosa, Guilandina Bonduc and Bonducella, and several others. 

 Still lower shrubs and suffrutescent herbs are Scccvola Plumieri, Tourne- 

 fortia gnaphahdcs, Scsuvium portulacastrum, HeUotropium ciirassavicum, 

 Philoxenis vermiciilatiis, CaJcile cvqiiaUs, as well as several grasses and 

 sedges, as Sporobulu& Utoralis, Stenotaphrum americanum, and Cgperus 

 brunneiis, as also some remarkable creepers or climbers, such as 

 Iponum pcacaprcv and Lablah vulgaris. 



I\Iost of these species disai^pear on the rocky cliffs, where they give 

 room for others, mostly shrubs of a low growth, and with thicker or 

 more coriaceous leaves, that are able to resist the force of the wind, 

 which often bends the whole plant into a dwarfish individual, the 

 branches of which are cut off at the top in a western direction. The 

 most common of these shrubs are Jacqidnia armillaris, Elwodendron 

 xylocarpum, Plmnieria alba, and Coccoloba punctata, as well as some 

 monocotyledonous plants, such as Pitcainiia angmtifoUa, Agave amcri- 

 cana, and a few Cacti, i^rincipally the stout Mclocactus communis. 



Still more different forms appear where the coast becomes swampy 

 from the presence of lagoons. Here predominates the Mangrove forma- 

 tion, composed chiefly of Laguncidaria raccmosa, Conocarpus erectus, Avi- 

 cennia nitida, and Rliizophora Mangle, which all grow moi'e or less in the 

 water itself. In less moist places we find some others, such as Bucida 

 Buccras, Anona palustris, Antherylium Bokrii, and the curious Batis ma- 

 ritima, which recalls to the mind the halopliy tes of the steppes. 



However different these various forms of littoral plants may apj)ear, 

 compared to each other, yet they all have in common the predilection 

 for the sea, the saline exhalation of which seems indispensable to their 

 growth. Some have even, like Avieennia, their leaves always covered 

 with small salt crystals; others, like Batis maritima, are true halopliytes, 

 and only very few of the plants of the coast iy generality are found in the 

 interior even of these small islands. An excex)tion is made by the cocoa- 

 nut palm, which is found growing all about on the islands, even on the 

 top of the highest hills, as also by Coccoloba uTifera, found in similar 

 localities. 



In passing from the coast into the interior we find on the eastern, and 



