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highest altitude is probably less than one hundred feet, still there 

 is sufficient diversity in the general make-up of the island to 

 support six different plant formations. Of course, the coastal 

 region represents the usual littoral flora of the tropics. Along 

 the eastern edge of the island is a limerock backbone of a single 

 ridge or broken into several ridges. It extends nearly the length 

 of the island or a distance of about ninety miles. This backbone 

 ends more or less abruptly with the shore on the eastern side. 

 On the western side, however, the usually several undulations 

 extend mostly one- or two miles inland and gradually die off in 

 the flat country. Behind this rock ridge is a nearly level expanse, 

 extending to the western side of the island, which varies from 

 about eight to forty miles in width. The rock backbone is broken 

 south of the middle of the island by three transverse channels 

 known as Northern, Middle, and Southern bights. These bights 

 make the four primary divisions of Andros. A second category 

 of islands is formed by the numerous small cays in the bights and 

 on the barrier reef along the eastern shore, which varies from one 

 to four miles in width. A third category of islands is formed by 

 the network of waterways resulting from the almost innumerable 

 branches of the eight or nine principal creeks which break through 

 the rock ridge of the eastern shore and the numerous creeks of 

 the western shore. The region made up of this third category of 

 islands is called the "Swash". The backbone of the island is 

 covered with a hardwood forest called the "coppice". The 

 swash is divided between five distinct plant formations, namely,, 

 "coppice", which exists here in isolated patches and not contin- 

 uous as it is on the rock ridge, the "scrub", the " pineyard ",. 

 the "Savannah", and the "marl". 



"Andros is said to comprise fully one third the land area of the 

 Bahamas. Approximately one thousand species of flowering 

 plants are definitely known to occur on the islands of the Baha- 

 mian archipelago. Of this number about five hundred and fifty or 

 over fifty per cent, of the Bahamian flowering plants grow natu- 

 rally on Andros. An exceptionally large percentage of the plants 

 are native mainly because such a small area of the islands is in- 

 habited and cultivated. Less than a half dozen species are en- 



