ON THE FLORA OF THE BAHAMAS. 361 



RejpoH of the Coonmittee, consisting of Messrs. W. Carruthers, 

 W. F. R. Weldon, J. Gr. Baker, G. M. Murray, and W. T. 

 Thiselton-Dyer (Secretary), appointed for the puipose of 

 exploring the Flora of the Bahamas. 



The Committee accepted tbe proposal of the well-known Danisli botanist. 

 Baron Eggers, to undertake the work entrusted to them as far as the sum 

 at their disposal would allow. Baron Eggers left Europe in November last 

 and returned in April. Mr. Baker, the principal assistant in the her- 

 barium of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has examined the collection trans- 

 mitted by Baron Eggers to Kew (a similar one has been sent to the 

 Botanical Department of the Natural Histoiy Museum). He has favoured 

 the Committee with the following report upon it : — 



The collection made by Baron Eggers contains representatives of 357 

 numbers. Of these eight are flowerless and indeterminable, and thirty- 

 five represent duplicates or a second form of a species ; so that the collec- 

 tion contains 314 species of which the genus can be determined, and these 

 represent 214 genera and 74 natural orders. A catalogue has been 

 made, which will be kept for reference at Kew. 



Previous Collections. — A few species were collected in the Bahamas by 

 Catesby early in the eighteenth century, some of which are figured in his 

 'Natural History of Carolina,' which was published in 1754. In Grise- 

 bach's ' Flora of the British West Indian Islands,' the first of the series 

 of colonial floras issued fi'om Kew, which was published in 1864, under 

 200 species are recorded from the group, mainly on the authority of a 

 collection sent long ago by Mr. Swainson to Sir W. J. Hooker. Between 

 1877 and 1880 Mr. L. J, K. Brace sent, through Governor Robinson, to 

 Kew seven parcels, containing in all 525 numbers. The collections of 

 Swainson and Brace probably contain about 200 species not gathered by 

 Baron Eggers, so that we now know from the Bahaman group about 500 

 species. 



Analysis of the Bahaman Flora. — Grisebach considered, and no doubt 

 rightly, that the Bahamas, with Turks Island, should be regarded botani- 

 cally as a distinct province of the West Indian region. In the whole of 

 the British West Indies about 3,000 plants are known. There are about 

 twenty inhabited islands in the Bahaman group, none of which rise to 

 any considerable elevation. Its area is given in the Colonial Office List 

 at 4,466 square miles, which is a little more than that of Jamaica. The 

 islands range over six degrees of latitude (21° to 27° N. lat.), and form 

 the northern province of the West Indian region. It is only here that 

 the Conifers form dense woods at a low level. The Bahaman Pinus is 

 endemic, and is not included in Parlatore's monograph. Only the cones 

 were known to Grisebach, but now Brace and Esrgers have obtained full 

 material. It has three leaves in a bundle and they are nearly a foot 

 long, so that, as Grisebach suspected, it is allied to Finns Tieda. Baron 

 Eggers describes it as a tree forty feet in height with a trunk a foot 

 in diameter. He has obtained flowerless specimens of the Bahaman 

 cedar, which we did not before possess in the Kew Herbarium. So far as 

 the material goes, it agrees with the Bermudan Juniperus hermudiana, 

 which is also found in the mountains of Jamaica. In New Providence 

 this also forms a tree forty feet in height. Several of the more tropical 



