Vol.5 No-S 



TORREYA LIBRARY 



NEW YOTiK 

 August, 1905 BOTANJCAL 



OARDtZN 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLORA OF THE ISLE OF 

 PALMS, CHARLESTON, S. C. 



Bv W. C. COKER 



There has been Httle done in recent years toward the classi- 

 fication of the coast flora of South Carolina into its component 

 parts, or toward determining the northern limit of a number of 

 subtropical species that reach our shores. Several of our southern 

 states have been or are now being investigated in a rather thorough 

 manner, and it is to be hoped that the useful work of the neigh- 

 boring states will be extended into South Carolina. Lloyd and 

 Tracy have published on the insular flora of Mississippi and 

 Louisiana ; in Alabama, Mohr has completed a valuable botanical 

 survey of the state ; and in Georgia, Harper is now working along 

 similar lines. Kearney has published two important papers on 

 the littoral flora of North Carolina, and Johnson has published 

 notes on the flora of Beaufort, N. C. To the northward this 

 work has been extended into New Jersey and Delaware by 

 Harshberger and by Snow. There is little to be found on the lit- 

 toral flora of Florida except a few notes by Dr. H. J. Webber in 

 Science, 1898. 



In the hope of adding a little to our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of the South Carolina coast flora I took the opportunity 

 while on the way to Florida in 1903 to stop a few days in 

 Charleston and make a survey of the western end of the Isle of 

 Palms. Not until recent years has this island been easily acces- 

 sible and I know of no botanists who have visited it except rep- 

 resentatives of the U. S. Department of Agriculture who collected 

 grasses there a few years ago. The Isle of Palms is in shape 

 somewhat like a ham, with the large end eastward and the west 

 end tapering to a rounded point, which is separated from Sullivan's 

 Island by a narrow channel. The island faces the open ocean 



[No. 7, Vol. 5, of ToRRKYA, comprising pages 1 19-134, was issued July 27, I905.] 



135 



