42 



Natural History Bulletin. 



ticularlv abundant, most of the individuals apparently spawn- 

 inff- It was no easv matter to detach these Chitons from the 

 rocks, if thev were given time to use their wonderful powers 

 of adhesion. If taken unawares, however, thev could be 

 easilv and quickly removed. The shells of nearlv. if not 

 quite, all of the species of gasteropods furnished homes for 

 minute hermit crabs. Strophiii glans and Ccnthium being 

 favorite abodes for these most persistent of homesteaders. 

 Some of these hermits seem to be in a fair way to become as 

 terrestrial in their habits as the land crabs of the Bahamas. 

 The writer has found them considerable distances from the 

 w ater on the highest parts of some of the rockv islets near 

 Spanish Wells. Bahamas. 



The modification of the chela; to serve as an operculum for 

 the individual shell chosen as a domicile, is a good instance of 

 what might be called the plasticity of the organism. It would 

 be interestincr to make a studv of this matter with a view to 

 ascertaining whether there is an}- tendency to inherit this 

 peculiar class of acquired characters, and thus adduce an argu- 

 ment for the Xea-Darwinian or Xeo-Lamarckian school, as the 

 case ma}- be. Another striking fact concerning these crus- 

 taceans is the brilliant color of the chela?, which are about as 

 conspicuous as they could be made, as if the economy in color 

 on the rest of the bodv was compensated for by a concentra- 

 tion of pigment on the only exposed parts of the animal. 



The botanists noted the following land plants on Egg 

 Island. 



i •• In a first view of Egg Island, the two most striking rep- 

 resentatives of its flora are the cocoa palms and the agave, or 

 American aloe plant. The characteristics of the former are 

 well known. Their trunks are often very crooked, bent in the 

 most fantastic shapes, and in color are striped alternately pale 

 ashen grey and dark, almost black. They are endogenous 

 and bear at the summit of the stem the i{reat cluster of mam- 

 moth feather-like fronds. A leaf is unfolded from its coarsely 



1 Miss Bertha Wilson has kindly furnished the following list of plants. It must be 

 remembered that this narrative does not enter the province of a Report, and only notes 

 a.few of the characteristic forms of each localitv- visited. 



