Narrative of Bahama ExrEDiTioN. 43 



reticulated tiber-like envelope about once a month, and a lar^e 

 spadix of small cream colored flowers disclosed. On the same 

 tree one may see every gradation of development, from the 

 budded blooms at the top to the ripened nut lower down. The 

 nuts hang in clusters by stems about as thick as a lead pencil. 



•• The agaves or • pita plants,' as they are called by the 

 natives, are much like century plants in appearance. The 

 great sword-like fleshy leaves grow from four to seven feet in 

 length, and are tipped with a sharp thorn. The flower stalk 

 is from sixteen to eighteen feet high, and is called a • pole.' 

 We did not see it in bloom here. The flber of the leaves is 

 used in the manufacture of cordage, a very paying industry to 

 the Bahamans. At Egg Island these striking plants were 

 everywhere, — along the shore, under the cocoa palms, in the 

 sandy, open places inland, and even springing among great 

 jagged masses of the coral formed rock. They are supposed 

 to be indigenous to the Bahamas, and occasionally are as pestif- 

 erous as weeds. 



'• Along the shores are the mangroves, with their glossy 

 leaves, and the sea grape, a shrub-like tree, with rigid spread- 

 ing branches, round cordate leaves, and long racemes of small 

 greenish flowers. It has a succulent violet calyx in which the 

 nuts are developed; hence the name, • sea-side grapes.' The 

 berries are acid and pleasant to the taste. The wood dyes a 

 red color. 



'• As we proceed inland we And thick hedges of shrub Ian- 

 tana four to seven feet high. It is sprinkled with its small 

 dense heads of white flowers, and makes the air redolent with 

 its sagey odor. Lantanas have run wild and ha\'e become as 

 uncontrollable as the rankest weeds. 



•• The Lippia, a small creeping relatix'e of the LiUiUDui. 

 grows near by in the sandy places. There are other coarse 

 and wood}' shrubs not yet identifled, — one with a small white 

 star-shaped flower, nestling right in the axils of its small 

 leaves, glossy as holl\', and its stems are bristling with long 

 sharp thorns. Still another has tiny bright green fleshy leaves, 

 scarcely one fourth of an inch long, springing in whorls along 



