December io, 1891] 



NATURE 



139 



THE ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF THE WEST 

 INDIA ISLANDS.^ 



'T^HIS Committee was appointed in 1887, and it has been 

 -*■ reappointed each year until the present time. 



During the past year Mr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R.S., has 

 continued to employ a collector in the island of St. Vincent, and 

 owing to the valuable assistance thus afforded to the Committee 

 it has been possible to complete the exploration of this island. 

 The collections in zoology are very extensive, and those in 

 botany extend to the w hole of the phanerogams and the vascular 

 cryptogams. No expense has been incurred by the Committee 

 in regard to any of these collections in St. Vincent. 



The services of Mr. R. V. Sherring, F. L. S., were accepted, as 

 mentioned in the last report, to make botanical collections in the 

 island of Grenada. He left this country in October last, and 

 returned after seven months' absence in June last. Mr. Sherring 

 has forwarded to this country large collections, consisting for the 

 most part of vascular cryptogams, and these are now in course of 

 being determined at Kew. A detailed report on the various 

 collections in zoology and botany received during the past year 

 is given lielow. 



At the present time Mr. Herbert H. Smith, the collector em- 

 ployed by Mr. Godman, is making collections in zoology in the 

 island of Grenada. This is the most southerly of the chain of 

 islands intended to be explored by the Committee. When this 

 island is completed, the Committee will have been engaged in in- 

 vestigating the fauna and flora of most of the islands in the Lesser 

 Antilles lying between Martinique and Trinidad. The islands 

 in which collections have so far been made consist of Dominica, 

 St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada. 



Zoology. — Since the last report collections have continued to 

 be received from St. Vincent by Mr. Godman. The work of 

 sorting and arranging these collections has been begun. The 

 arthropods are already completed, and the larger part of the 

 insects is mounted and prepared for despatch to the specialists 

 who have been engaged to work them out. 



For this purpose the Committee have been so fortunate as to 

 obtain the assistance of the following naturalists : Herr Hofrath 

 Brunner von Wattenwyl for the Orthoptera ; Prof. Riley for the 

 Rhynchota ; Mr. Howard for the parasitic Hymenoptera ; Prof. 

 S. W. Williston for the Diptera ; Prof. Aug. Forel for the 

 Ants ; Lord Walsingham for Lepidoptera, part ; F. D. God- 

 man and O. Salvin for Lepidoptera, part ; D. Sharp for Coleo- 

 ptera ; M. Simon for Spioers generally ; Mr. G. W. Peckham 

 for Attidae. The Committee have undertaken to procure 

 publication of the memoirs that mav be received from these 

 savants. 



A small collection of specimens made by Dr. H. A. Alford 

 NichoUs, F.L. S., local secretary to the Committee in the island 

 of Dominica, was received in May last. This consisted of nine 

 mammals, one lizard, one snake, five fishes, one Ascalafhtis, 

 twelve Longicornia, two Passalidse, and five Lamellicornia. 

 Besides these Dr. Nicholls sent from the island of Tobago four 

 of the peculiar nests of the yellow-tailed bird of that island 

 (Cassicus cristalus). These birds usually build their nests de- 

 pending from isolated branches of the silk-cotton tree (Erio- 

 dendron anfractuosutn), and they look like huge fruits waving in 

 the wind. 



A small collection of Lepidoptera was received in November 

 last from Captain Hellard, R.E., local secretary to the Committee 

 in the island of St. Lucia. The mounted specimens in this collec- 

 tion arrived in bad order, owing to the pieces of camphor getting 

 ioose ir the boxes and breaking the greater part of them, 

 including almost the whole of the Sphingida;. 



Mr. John C. Wells, who has devoted attention to the ornitho- 

 logy of Grenada, has kindly consented to act as a local secretary 

 for that island. 



Botany. — Ol the botanical collections received from St. 

 Vincent the vascular cryptogams have been determined by Mr. 

 J. G. Baker, F. R. S., and an accouut of them, with two plates, 

 ^xxaX.t,6.\n.\.\\^ Annals of Botany, vol. v. (April l89l)pp. 163-172. 

 Amongst the fern§ the most striking novelty is a new species of 

 Asplenium, named A. Godinani, Baker (pi. xi.), found in damp 

 forests at the extreme top of Morne a Garou. Other new species 



' P'ourth Report of the British Association Committee, consisting of Prof. 

 Flower (Chairman), Mr. D. Morris (Secretary), Mr. Camithers, Dr. Sclater, 

 Mr. 'Ihiselton-Dyer, Dr. Sharp, Mr. F. DuCane Godman, Prof. Newton, 

 Dr. Gnnther, and Colonel Feilden, appointed f )r the purpose of reporting 

 on the present state of our knowledge of the Zoology and B jtany of the 

 West India Islands, and taking steps to investigate ascertained deficiencies 

 in the Fauna and Flora. 



2lx^ Hymenophylltim vincenlinuin. Baker (pi. x. ), and Acrosti- 

 chtim {Elaphoglossum) Smithii, Baker. The total number of 

 vascular cryptogams found recently in St. Vincent amounts to 

 168 species. Most of these are widely spread through tropical 

 America, and only four are endemic. In addition to the above 

 a new species of Zi'',?/rt!/'/<rr7-, also from St. Vincent {Kantia vin- 

 centina, C. H. Wright), was described in the ^^Mr;/a/(;/^(?/a;/j/, 

 vol. xxix. (April 1891), p. 107. 



Of the phanerogams from St. Vincent and some of the Grena- 

 dines the work of determining these is being carried on as 

 expeditiously as circumstances permit. The collection is a very 

 large one, and the results so far attained are contained in the 

 following memorandum prepared by Mr. R. A. Rolfe : — 



The flowering plants have been determined as far as the end 

 of Rutaceae. Those from St. Vincent number slightly over a 

 hundred species, of which about thirty, consistitig lor the most 

 part of common West Indian plants, were not previously re- 

 corded from the island. The most interesting plant is a species 

 of Trigyneia (apparently new), a small tropical American genus 

 of Anonaceae not hitherto detected in the West Indies. A 

 Clusia and a species of Tetrapterys, which cannot be identified, 

 may also prove new. The remainder have been fully determined. 

 The three most interesting of these are NoranCea Jussiai, Vr. 

 and PI., previously known only from Guadaloupe and Dominica ; 

 Zanthoxylon microcarpiim, Griseb., from Dominica and Trini- 

 dad ; and Z. spinosum, Sw., from Dominica, Jamaica, and 

 Cuba. The composition of the flora of the Lesser Grenadines, 

 situated between St. Vincent and Grenada, was previously 

 almost unknown. The plants hitherto determined are as 

 follows : — From the island of Bequia, 34 species ; from Mus 

 tique, 18 ; from Canouan, 5 ; and from Union, the nearest to 

 Grenada, 5. They are, without exception, common West Indian 

 plants, and are ail also natives of St. Vincent. From the results 

 hitherto obtained it seems clear that the flora of the Lesser 

 Antilles is tolerably uniform throughout, although the larger 

 islands of Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and possibly St. 

 Vincent, appear to have each a very small endemic element. 



The collections made by Mr. Sherring at Grenada consist of 

 nearly 6000 specimens of vascular cryptogams and about looo 

 specimens of phanerogams. The number of species of ferns is 

 about 140, and of these two are new, viz. Alsophila Elliottii, 

 Baker, and Acrostichum Sharingii, Baker. The phanerogams 

 have not yet been worked out. Sixty species of ferns were pre- 

 viously known from Grenada from collections made by Mr. G. 

 R. Murray, F.L.S., and Mr. W. R. Elliott. Mr. Sherring has in- 

 creased this number to 140. The species of greatest interest, other 

 than those known to be new, are Aspletiium Godmani, Baker, re- 

 cently found in St. Vincent ; Polypodium Hartii, Jenman, first 

 described in 1886, and known only in the mountains of Jamaica 

 and Dominica ; and Acrostichum Aubertii, widely spread in 

 continental America, but new to the West Indies. Other in- 

 teresting plants collected by Mr. Sherring are Schizaa Jlumin- 

 ensis, Miers, new to the West Indies, but believed to be only a 

 shade variety of .S". dichotovia, and Dancea polymorpha, Lepriear, 

 a critical form of which but little is known. 



An account of vascular cryptogams collected at Grenada is in 

 course of being prepared for the Annals of Botany. 



Mr. Sherring has prepared an interesting report on the flora 

 of Grenada, and this will prove of great interest to students of 

 West Indian botany. 



A colleciion of plants was received from Dr. Nicholls at the 

 same time as the specimens in zoology already noticed. These 

 consisted of fifty-six species of vascular cryptogams — all of them, 

 were, however, well-known West Indian plants — and a small 

 number (175 numbers) of phanerogams. The latter have not 

 yet been determined. 



The Committee recommend their reappointment, with the 

 following members : Dr. Sclater, Mr. Carruthers, Prof. Newton, 

 Mr. Godman, Dr. Giinther, and V>x. Sharp. The Committee 

 also recommend that the grant of ;,^ioo placed at their disposal, 

 but not expended during the current year, be renewed. 



UNI VERS I TY AND ED UCA TIONA L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Cambridge.— Mr. A. E. Shipley, Demonstrator of Com- 

 parative Anatomy, has been appointed Secretary to the Museums 

 Syndicate ; and Mr. S. F. Harmer, Demonstiator of Invertebrate 

 Morphology, Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology, in the 

 room of Mr. ]. W. Clark. 



NO. II 54, VOL. 45] 



