A.GASSIZ : BERMUDAS. 219 



often become sinks (Plate XIV.) or elongated pools, and when broken 

 into by the sea soon leave a line of cays parallel to the main shore. 

 The winds are more variable at Bermuda, the islands being several 

 degrees north of the limits of the trades, while the Bahamas are on 

 their northern edge. 



The general aspect of the Bermuda vegetation is characterized by the 

 presence of the Bermuda juniper, which has assumed in these islands 

 the prominence which the pine has taken on the Little Bahama Bank, 

 on Andros, and on New Providence. Comparatively few of the plants so 

 characteristic of the shores of the most barren of the Bahamas are met 

 with near the shore line. 



The Alga3 and Corallines which I collected at the Bermudas were 

 kindly examined for me by Professor Farlow. Off the sand beaches of 

 the south shore on the bottom of the interior sounds the calcareous Algse 

 consisted mainly of species of Peuicillus, of Bostricha, of Udotea, and 

 of Halimeda, identical with West Indian types. On the rims of the 

 serpuline atolls (Plates XXIV.— XXVI.) were collected species of Turbi- 

 naria, Galaxaura, Blodgettia, Dasyclades, Codium, Laurencia, Dyctyota, 

 Eucheuma, Sargassum, Zonaria, Caulerpa, and Janca, all of which also 

 occur on the outer ledge of flats and inner patches. 



Professor Moseley collected a number of marine plants at the Ber- 

 mudas which have been described in the Journal of the Linnaean Society, 

 and his collections of the flowering plants formed the basis of the ex- 

 tended Report on the Botany of the Bermudas by Hemsley, 1 where a 

 full account of the earlier sketches of the flora of these islands will be 

 found. Professor Charles S. Dolley has also given an account of the 

 Botany of the Bahamas. 2 



The principal accounts we have of the geology of the Bermudas are 

 those of Captain Nelson. 3 The geology in Jones's " Naturalist in the 

 Bermudas" (1859) is taken mainly from Nelson's Report. Rein gave a 

 most interesting sketch of the geology of the islands in the Bericht. ii. d. 

 Senckenbergische Naturf. Gesellschaft for 1870, page 140; he was fol- 

 lowed by Sir Wyville Thomson, 4 who spent a short time in the Bermudas, 

 and next in order came the visits of Rice, 5 of Fewkes, 6 and of Heilprin. 7 

 Darwin is of the opinion that the Bermudas "have a close general re- 



1 Voyage of H. M. S. " Challenger," Botany, Part I., W. H. Hemsley, 1884. 



2 Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 1889, p. 130. 



3 Trans. Geol. Soc. of London, V. 103, 1837. 



* The Atlantic, I. 289, 1877. 6 Proc Bost Soc Nat. Hist., 1888. 



5 Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum, No. 25, 1884. 1 The Bermuda Islands, 1889. 



