70 
with those of the Miami Limestone Region or Everglade Keys. 
The Lower Sand Keys are little more than sand-bars, and they 
support, like the ocean side of all the Florida Keys, only, or 
mainly, the characteristic strand-flora of most of the West Indies. 
e e chain is surrounded by tropical waters. The 
western extension lies in the Gulf of Mexico, while the inner side 
of the reef is bathed for its entire length with the same waters 
attenuated into the Bay of Florida, Blackwater Sound, Barnes 
Sound, Card’s Sound, and Bay Biscayne. The outer side of the 
reef is swept by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Thus we 
find here a tropical flora made up almost wholly of West Indian 
elements, and closely related to the floras of Bermuda, the 
Bahamas, and Cuba. 
The results of recent ee prosecuted on these tropical 
islands was illustrated with some of the specimens collected and 
summarized as follows: five peice a species, one West 
Indian tree added to the arboreous flora of the United States, 
several West Indian herbaceous plants new to the flora of Florida, 
and about twenty-five species of flowering plants new to the 
Florida Keys. 
Dr. Hollick, who could not be present, submitted papers which 
were read by the secretary of the conference 
n the first paper the various methods of illustrating fossil 
specimens were described and discussed and various examples of 
such work were displayed. These included pen and ink drawings, 
brush drawings and ordinary photographic work, all of which do 
not ae the best of results and are for various reasons unsatis- 
coe however, a method has been employed by the 
United States Geological Survey which produces satisfactory 
pictures of almost any subject. The specimen is treated with 
ammonium chloride, by directing a fine spray, like a fog, over 
the entire surface, which is thus coated uniformly and evenly 
white. This eliminates all color interference, and by placing 
the specimen at an angle in a strong bright light every inequality 
appears either as a depression or an elevation, in clear, sharp 
