207 
shrubs and other plants are Cuban and Floridian in distribution ; 
the pine grows also upon the slopes of hills, and in places even 
upon their summits. 
It is in the natural woods and thickets, uniformly called cop- 
pices, that the greatest number of species occur, some of them 
Bahamian only, some also Cuban or Floridian, and some com- 
mon to the three countries. The character of these coppices 
iffers considerably in different parts of the island, and the dis- 
tribution of the component shrubs and trees, is, as in the Florida 
hammocks, exceedingly local; in a number of instances a single 
colony of a plant, composed of but few individuals, was all that 
we could see of it, even after traversing miles and miles of cop- 
pices. The low coppices, both low in stature and usually in al- 
titude above the sea, are of a density equalling or exceeding any 
thickets that it has ever been my pleasure to penetrate ; the trees 
and shrubs grow straight up and so close together that one has to 
squeeze between them to get on, and the growth of air-plants (bro- 
meliads and orchids of several species) upon them is something 
extraordinary ; several of the orchids are showy species of 
ipidendrum, and one of them, bearing very long panicles of yel- 
lowish-purple flowers, contradicts its generic name by growing 
upon the ground, instead of on trees; the most remarkable of 
them is an essentialy leafless vanilla (V. Eggerstana) which scram- 
bles through and upon the shrubs in oS pone and is one 
of the most curious of Bahamian plants; wit climbs a very 
slender relative of the bamboos pa its short flow- 
ering branches densely tufted at the joints of the stem. It is in 
igh coppices that the larger trees occur, the mahogany 
ee and the wild figs (Ficus brevifolia and F. sapotifolia) 
being of the greatest size, and accompanied by numerous other 
species which attain smaller dimensions. The growth here is 
less dense than that of the low coppices, and the air plants are 
less abundant, though two or three species of Epidendruim, and 
the Long Moss (7illandsia usneoides) which hangs so abundantly 
tom the live oaks and other trees in our southeastern states, are 
occasionally met with. 
The accumulated débris of leaves and twigs makes the meager 
