566 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



served, but there is scarcely any limestone recorded. The origin 

 of Anegada is therefore wholly different from the rest of the group 

 and its limestone very much resembles that of the Bahamas, 

 Bermuda, and other aeolian islands. Its soil is therefore quite 

 different from that of the other Virgin islands, and some of its 

 plants are not known to grow on them. 



The only detailed published account of Anegada known to me 

 is that of Robert Hermann Schomburgk, printed on pages 152-170, 

 with a map, in the second volume of the Journal of the Royal 

 Geographical Society of London, published in 1832. In these 

 years, and previously, the island was noteworthy for the number 

 of wrecks of sailing vessels which occurred there, and wrecking 

 was the principal occupation of the inhabitants and was evidently 

 quite lucrative. Schomburgk surveyed the island in 1831; his 

 paper . contains descriptions of its geography, oceanography, 

 geology, and climate, with notes upon its plants and animals, and 

 a list of 53 vessels wrecked on its reefs within the memory of its 

 inhabitants up to that time. He does not appear to have made 

 any collections, although, as a member of the Horticultural 

 Society of Berlin, he might have been expected to have brought 

 out some botanical specimens; Professor Urban remarks, "Plants 

 do not appear to have been collected on this island."^ Schom- 

 burgk records the discovery of a definite northwesterly current 

 about the island and accredited certain deposits which he observed 

 on its southern side to drift-matter in this current, originating as 

 part of the sediment brought down by the Orinoco River. He 

 remarks, "This explains the reason why there are many plants to 

 be met with on the island which do not exist in any of the other 

 Virgin islands, but are peculiar to South America." He states the 

 greatest width of the island as 4.25 miles, but his map shows this 

 to be excessive, and he gives the greatest height as 60 feet above 

 the sea, at a point just east of the settlement, but we saw no 

 such altitude. 



The plants mentioned by Schomburgk are: 



Arundo, on sand hillocks, northwestern side. We saw no 



large grass on the island, but we did not explore the whole 



of the northwestern coast. 



'Symb. Ant. i: 152. 1898. 



