192 VEGETATION 



trees. Three are listed in this report and five others are given by Northrop, 

 Hitchcock and Urban. It is very doubtful, however, if there are as many 

 as eight species represented in these collections, and I think it unlikely that 

 there are more than this number of indigenous figs in all the islands of the 

 group. 



The Loranthacece are credited with seven or eight species, but here also 

 the nomenclature has probably been confused. This family is not nearly so 

 abundant in the Bahamas as in some of our other tropical islands, as Jamaica 

 and Cuba. The Polygonacew, represented in temperate countries only by 

 herbaceous species, comprise a number of Bahama trees of the genus Coccolobis. 

 Some of them are among the most common plants of the Islands. No water 

 lilies (Nymphoeaccce) had been found until we collected Castalia ampla (DC.) 

 Green, on Cat Island, and it remains the only indigenous species of that 

 family so far reported. The great group, Cruciferce, so abundant in the United 

 States, is represented only by the widely distributed littoral plant Cakile 

 cequalis I/ Her., and the introduced weed, Lepidium virginicum L. Of the 

 rose family, Chrysobalanus and Primus are the only Bahama genera. The 

 first is represented by two species, the pink-fruited and black-fruited cocoa 

 plums; the second by but one species, Primus sphwrocarpa Sw., known only 

 from New Providence. The Mimosacew, rarely found in the United States, 

 furnished some of the largest and most useful trees of the Islands, such as the 

 horseflesh and will tamarind. The Cassiacece and Papilionacece are also well 

 represented. The proportion of woody species to herbaceous ones is greater in 

 these families than it is in the United States. Of the Zygopliyllacece, Guaiacum 

 (Lignum vitae) and two species of Tribulus are all that have been collected. 

 Tribulus cistoides L. is reported only by Hitchcock. We did not see it at any 

 point and its evident rarity is remarkable when we consider its wide distribu- 

 tion and abundance on other tropical shores. The Linacece comprise several 

 species of Erythroxylon and two species of Linum. Of the latter Linum cur- 

 tissii Small is a new species found by Dr. Britton on New Providence and soon 

 to be published. The Eupliorbiacece is one of the most extensive families of 

 the Islands. Most of its representatives are woody species and many of them 

 are trees. The peculiar shrub, Bonamia cubana A. Eich., of our collection, 

 had not before been found out of Cuba, and the large tree, Pera humeliosfolia 

 Griseb., also collected by us, has not heretofore been published from the Ba- 

 hamas. Securinego acidothamnus (Griseb.) Muell. Arg., collected by us on 

 Andros, had not previously been found north of St. Thomas. The Celastracece, 



