aquatic plants of interest, neither did its margins support a flora 

 differing materially from that on the surrounding mountain sides. 

 Two ponds in the northern end of the island hai bored a feu- 

 plants each of the water lettuce Pistia stratiotes L., while the 

 larger one, on Silver Hill at an elevation of about 1,100 feet, also 

 contained two or three plants of the white water lily, Castalia 

 ampla Salisb. 



The Soufrieres, of which there are three, are not, as usually 



an altitude of about 1,300 feet. They consist of numerous fis- 

 sures containing boiling water and emitting steam and sulphurous 

 vapors, surrounded by deposits of sulphur, white, yellow and red 



an occasional dead tree or fern trunk still standing. The vege- 

 tation nearest to them consists of mosses and slime-like algae 

 within and bordering the streamlets of hot water, the higher 



like Lycopodium called hartshorn, two or three species of ferns 

 belonging to the genus Dicranopteris, and a bromeliad with 

 brilliant scarlet inflorescence. 



Botanically this island is scarcely known, the only collections 

 of plants made thereon, that we have any knowledge of, having 

 been collected about 1802 by a Dr. John Ryan. I was unable 

 to obtain any information about Dr. Ryan during my visit, and 

 there are no white men of that name on the island now. 



Economically, Montserrat has been in an unenviable position 



floods and hurricanes in rapid succession during the last twenty 

 years, which, added to the depression already caused by the 

 constantly declining price of sugar has reduced the white 



popul 



arly 



14,000 inhabitants. It is distressing to look upon the great 

 piles of stone, the ruins of once stately plantation buildings 



makeshifts that have taken their place. On the other hand, the 



