304 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



squaniatum, all of the other plants which occur at this elevation 

 grow abundantly lower down. Apparently the same sort of 

 vegetation continues to the base of the hills mentioned above, 

 about 200 ft. hij>:her. The northwest sides of these hills are cov- 

 ered with forests, apparently made up largely of Scalesia trees. 

 The southeast sides are treeless, however, as was noticed from 

 the settlement near Wreck Bay, later in the season. 



Sappho Cove. 



Sappho Cove is also situated on the west side of the island 

 about four miles northeast of Basso Point. The bay is small and 

 almost entirely land-locked, but owing to the fact that it is very 

 shallow, only small vessels can anchor in it. The shores sur- 

 rounding the bay are made up of basaltic lava and sand beaches 

 on which there are small groves of trees of Rhizophora Mangle 

 and thickets of Laguncularia bushes in places. A short distance 

 back of the beach in the vicinity of salt water pools, there are 

 trees of Avicennia officinalis. The sand in the vicinity of the 

 pools, and on the beaches, is covered in places with a heavy 

 growth of Batis maritima, Sesuvium Portulaeastrum, and Spor- 

 ooblus vii'ginicus. In several places along the open coast, 

 in this vicinity, the sand has been thrown up into long ridges, as 

 a result of the action of wind and waves. These ridges are cov- 

 ered, on the side next to the land, with a heavy growth of Con- 

 ocarpus erect us, Cryptocarpus pyriformis, Discaria paucifLora, 

 Maytenus obovata, Scaevola Plumieri, and Vallesia glabra. The 

 roots of these bushes prevent the sand from shifting inland too 

 rapidly. 



The country is very flat between Finger Point and Sappho 

 Cove, and is covered with beds of basaltic lava. In the immedi- 

 ate vicinity of the cove this lava is covered with a tolerably dense 

 growth of xerophytic vegetation which gradually becomes thin- 

 ner farther north until it is praeticallj' bare in the vicinity of 

 Finger Point. As the vegetation decreases in amount it also be- 

 comes smaller, and such species as Bursera graveolens, which 

 grow to the size of trees around Sapho Cove and further south, 

 are mei'e bushes as Finger Point is approached. This place 

 illustrates the gradual invasion of lava by higher plant life bet- 

 ter than any other visted upon the islands. The most common 

 plants on the lava beds here are : Aristida subspicata, Borreria 



