74 



other Bahamian islands and is in cultivation in gardens in Cuba 

 and Jamaica. Sailing south the afternoon of the same day, we 

 reached Governor's Harbor and devoted Februaiy 19 and 20 to 

 the study of the vicinity of that town, the bridle road enabling 

 us to cross the island, here less than two miles wide from west 

 to east, and return a different way ; we collected specimens of 

 many interesting species on these section lines, some of them 

 not hitherto known from Eleuthera, the best ground being a 

 valley lying parallel to the eastern shore where fresh water 

 wells supply the washerwomen of the town with water. Here 

 there is also a considerable area of fresh water marsh and 

 numerous small plants seldom seen in the Bahamas occur, 



lated to the asters of our own coastal marshes. In white sand 

 near the town we found a showy yellow-flowered Mcutzdia, new 

 to the Bahamas. Governor's Harbor is a center for the cultiva- 

 tion of pineapples, especially on " red-lands," which occupy 



of the 



e by r. 



these lands are much esteemed in the Bahamas for this industry. 

 Our next collecting point to the south was Rock Sound, a 

 large shallow bay on which the town of New Portsmouth is sit- 

 uated,, which is one of the best harbors for small vessels in 



3 the 



cable : 





.aking a 



lat the Bahaman scrub- lands and 

 coppices are usually nearly impenetrable, except for very short 

 distances, without a road or trail, owing to the dense growth of 

 the shrubs and trees. In this vicinity we first found the " pep- 



which we had long desired to see growing ; a low prickly pear 

 cactus {Opuntia) with extraordinary armament of spines was 



shrub of the Spurge Family {Lasiocroton) with leaves strikingly 

 reticulated on the under side, hitherto known in the Bahamas only 

 from Andros Island. Sailing south around Powell's Point, the 

 two days of February 23 and 24 were given to a study of the 



