THE HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION 15 



of seeds by currents, a subject which I had been following up 

 in various parts of the world since it first attracted my attention 

 amongst the coral islets of the Solomon Islands in the early 

 eighties, and one which I had constantly kept in view during 

 my previous three winters in the West Indies. I had made 

 collections in Jamaica, Tobago, and Trinidad, the large 

 quantities of Orinoco drift washed up on the southern beaches 

 of Trinidad proving full of interest. So I took up my abode 

 in Grand Turk, and from there visited all the cays of the 

 group, making a special study of the littoral plants and 

 especially investigating the abundant stranded seed-drift, 

 hardly any of which belongs to plants that have established 

 themselves in those islands, or in fact in the Bahamian region 

 generally. 



Whilst at Grand Turk I was fortunate enough to meet 

 Dr Millspaugh, who was just completing the botanical survey The 

 of the Bahamian flora which Dr Britton, himself, and other su^eyofthe 



botanists from the United States had been six years engaged Bahamas b y 

 _ ni i T i j iri i i i botanists of 



in. The lurks Islands are the farthest south, and it might the United 



Q, , 



have appeared as if I had come in to spoil the finish of a great *" u6S * 

 undertaking. However, our special interests lay far apart, 

 and I could not for a moment lay claim to a fraction of the 

 intimate knowledge possessed by Dr Millspaugh of the plants 

 of this region. I was the astonished spectator of the applica- 

 tion of his great experience to the flora of the little island of 

 Grand Turk. All the knowledge of years acquired through 

 the length and breadth of the Bahamas was brought to bear 

 within the narrow limits of the flora of this small island. It 

 was a lesson that I shall not readily forget. Dr Millspaugh 

 very kindly lent me the manuscript of the Flora of the 

 Bahamas by Dr Britton and himself ; and in return I gave 

 him a collection of seed-drift obtained from the beaches of the 

 group, which is now lodged in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History, Chicago. When the American botanists publish 

 their work they will enrich their science with the most complete 

 account of a flora hitherto made in the West Indian region. 



o 



