VI 11 ORCHIDS OF JAMAICA 



the district consists chiefly of brittle shale, easily decomposing, 

 with occasional masses of coral limestone, marble, granite, &c., 

 interspersed. 



" There is a range of mountains close to the east end, 

 running in a northerly and southerly direction, and rising to an 

 elevation of 2,100 feet. The coast in the neighbourhood is 

 rocky, and continues so for some distance to the west of Port 

 Antonio. These mountains, known as the John Crow Mountains 

 or Blake Mountains, are so wet, and the limestone rock is so 

 difficult to travel over, that it is believed only one white man 

 has ever crossed them. Nathaniel Wilson may have collected 

 on the slopes of these mountains on the east side, or on the 

 southerly slopes, some of the species that have not been found 

 since. The limestone rock of these mountains occurs over the 

 greater part of Jamaica, and in large districts it has disinte- 

 grated so as to form, as in the John Crow Mountains, such a 

 series of precipitous cliffs that it is impossible to travel through 

 it. The so-called ' Cockpit country ' is of this nature, and it is 

 in such places that new species of plants may naturally be 

 looked for." (W. F. in Urban, Symbolic Antillanse, vi. 86.) 



The Orchids of Jamaica are of special interest from the large 

 number of endemic forms which they include. The total 

 number of genera is 61, one of which, Homalopetalum,m endemic. 

 The total number of species is 194, of which 73 are confined to 

 the Island. There are also some endemic varieties. 



The most striking affinity of the Orchid flora is with that of 

 Cuba, 82 species, out of a total of 121, which are not endemic, 

 occurring also in that island, and of these 14 are restricted to 

 the two islands. The affinity with Hispaniola is apparently not 

 so marked, there being only 29 species known from both 

 islands, of which two, Epidendrum repem and Broughtonia 

 domingensis, occur nowhere else. The difference is due no doubt 

 to some extent to our greater knowledge of the botany of Cuba 

 as compared with that of Hispaniola. With the much better 

 explored island of Porto Rico, which lies further east beyond 

 Hispaniola, the affinity is apparently greater, there being 

 40 species common to Jamaica and this island, four of which 

 are known elsewhere only in Cuba. Ten species are common to 

 Jamaica and the Bahamas, and 15 to Jamaica and Florida, the 

 relation of which to the West Indies is very close. Passing 



