FLORA. OP THE ISLETS OF THE BOCAS. 403 



As soon as the wet season sets in, they are seen covered with a 

 thick carpeting of nymphaeas, utricularias, pontederias, and 

 azollas. This vegetation is nearly identical with that of our 

 swamps or lagoons, for instance, those of Erin and Quemada ; 

 they exhibit, however, a few other plants which are not found at 

 the above place, viz., Salvinia, Limnobium, Ceratophyllum, besides 

 Lemna and Pistia. The half -salt or brackish swamps nourish 

 principally large rushes, typhas, banisterias, and Echites biflora, 

 Acroslichum aureum, and, nearer to the sea, Crenea and Anthery- 

 lium. In small water-pools or rivulets, in the plains of the 

 interior districts, may be found Ammania and Jussieua, 

 Spilanthes, several species of Nerpestes, Mayaca, and Conobea. 



On sandy beaches, we observe, before all, the beautiful Ipomea 

 Pes Capra and another species with white flowers, a Pancratium 

 and a Remirea ; also several grasses of the following genera : — 

 Paspalum, Cenckrus, Stenotaphrum, Cyperoids, and others. 

 Further inward we meet with a dense shrubbery of Chrysobalanus, 

 Conocarpus, Paritmm, and Bactris ; and beyond these, we may, 

 perhaps, observe fields of Gynerium saccharoides, or the white 

 roseau. 



The vegetation of the pitch-lake has its peculiarities, although 

 no particular species grows there within my knowledge. In the 

 middle of this curious spot there is, of course, no vegetation 

 whatever, since the pitch is there in a state of ebullition ; farther 

 off this centre, and in the water of the many crevices which 

 intersect the lake in every direction, the first traces of vegetation 

 become perceivable — such as a few conferva) and a Chara ; at a 

 still greater circumference, the pitch, having been long exposed 

 to the agencies of sun and rain, has become disintegrated, and 

 in this kind of soil are found a few lichens, mosses, grasses, and 

 cyperoids. In other places, where this layer is looser and 

 thicker, we find the following : — a Clusia, Chrysobalanus 

 icacos, Anona palustris, Xyris, bromeliacese, and ferns. The 

 lake itself is bounded on one side by a kind of savannah — the 

 sterility of this spot being marked by an undue proportion 

 of sclerias, ferns, and melastomaceae (Osbeckia and Spennera), 

 together with bromelias dotting everywhere the rank grasses. 



The islets of the Bocas are overgrown with plants which are, 

 | as it were, peculiar to them, and on that account they deserve a 

 1 distinct notice. These islets are, for the most part, drier than 



