148 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



W. Henshaw have kindly furnished measurements of certain specimens 

 from collections under their care. Miss Sophie G. Keenan, of Nueva 

 Gerona, Isle of Pines, has courteously supplied some much needed 

 information concerning sundry localities, together with an authentic 

 map of the island. Dr. Otto E. Jennings, Curator of Botany in the 

 Carnegie Museum, is responsible for that part of the present paper 

 which deals with the physiographic and major botanical features of 

 the island. And finally, acknowledgments are due to Mr. Arthur C. 

 Read, of Santa Barbara, Isle of Pines, for a set of his articles on birds 

 published in a local newspaper, and for his cheerful compliance with 

 requests for information concerning his work. 



Geography and Physiography. 

 The Isla de Pinos, or Isle of Pines, lies ofif the southern coast of 

 Cuba, to which it belongs both politically and geographically. It is 

 situated about midway of the concavity formed by the western end 

 of that island, from the nearest point of which it is distant only about 

 thirty-five miles, while the channel between is dotted with numerous 

 small islands or cays. Its area is approximately eight hundred square 

 miles, and its outline roughly rectangular, with the corners cut ofif. 

 On the west coast there is a deep indentation, known as Siguanea 

 Bay, and a smaller one on the east coast, directly opposite. Between 

 these two inlets stretches an immense fresh-water morass, the Cienaga 

 de Lanier, which divides the island from east to west into two parts, 

 the southern portion being approximately one-half the size of the 

 northern. The latter is irregularly oblong in shape, about twenty- 

 five miles in an east and west direction by twenty miles north and 

 south. The southern portion is about thirty-five miles long and not 

 over eight miles across at the widest part, with its western end curving 

 to the northwest, around Siguanea Bay, for a considerable distance 

 beyond the westernmost point of the northern portion. The " south 

 coast," as it is called, is almost uninhabited and very imperfectly 

 known, but the northern portion of the island has been laid out into 

 tracts of greater or less size, some of which have been cleared and given 

 over to the cultivation of citrus-fruits, pineapples, etc. The total 

 population is said to be about four thousand, and Nueva Gerona, in 

 the north-central part of the island, is the principal town, between 

 which and Batabano, Cuba, there is regular communication by 

 steamer. 



