41 
Caribbean Sea, being only slightly protected by Point Toro, 
which lies about three miles to the northwest. The range of 
the tide here is only about two feet under ordinary conditions and 
the reef has a fairly well-developed algal flora, in striking contrast 
to that of the Bay of Panama, with its heavy tides, less than fifty 
miles to the southward. The species are mostly, at least, those 
of a wide distribution among the West Indian islands and on the 
borders of the Caribbean Sea. On this exposed reef they are 
naturally of the surf-loving kinds, among which the unsegmented 
corallines are well represented. Among the plants of peculiar 
interest found growing on this reef were two or three specimens 
of what I take to be Meristotheca Duchassaingit, which was 
originally described from the island of Guadeloupe and has since 
been found washed ashore in Barbados and in southern Florida. 
A few species, not otherwise seen, were obtained by dredging in 
the quieter waters of Manzanillo Bay to the eastward of the 
island on which Colon is located. Towards the end of our stay 
in Colon a successful afternoon of dredging was enjoyed near 
Point Toro, with the kind assistance of Dr. C. A. Hearne, As- 
sistant Quarantine Officer, and the aid of an electric launch be- 
longing to the quarantine station. 
During the first ten days of our stay in Colon, our work was 
somewhat hampered by heavy rains. We happened to be there 
during the worst of the three floods that visited the Canal Zone 
during the past season and Panamanian floods are of a sort that 
interfere more or less with nearly every form of human activity. 
At the meteorological station at Cristobal a rainfall of over 34 
inches was recorded for the month of December — the highest 
record for December in the thirty-nine years during which records 
have been kept in Colon and vicinity. The record for November 
was 42.5 inches, which had been exceeded only once during the 
same period. The soil and humus deposits were, naturally, 
well and continuously saturated with water during our visit, and 
this condition, together with the prevalent high temperatures, 
was very favorable to the development of fungi, of which a con- 
siderable number of species were secured for the Garden collec- 
tions. I walked the tracks of the Panama Railroad from Colon 
