688 Part IV. Chapter 7. 
O. curassavica, O. spinosissima and Cereus floccosus. All of these plants are more or less frequent 
and help to make such thickets almost impenetrable. 5 
Tropic Forest Formation. The ravines, as well as the northern and western 
parts of the islands, are often covered with a growth of tall trees, forming a 
forest composed of species party evergreen and partiy with deciduous 
foliage. The area covered by this formation may be taken, according to 
EGGERS (1879), to be about one fifth of the whole surface, the best wooded 
islands being St. John, Vieques and the least wooded ones St. Thomas and 
Virgin Gorda. As nearly everywhere in the tropics, this forest is composed 
of many different species of trees mixed together, a gregarious growth being 
very rare. 
In the interior of St. Thomas, we find the following trees in this formation: Bueida buceras, 
Melicocca bijuga, Mammea americana, Clusia rosea, Ceiba pentandra (= Eriodendron anfractuosum) 
and species of such genera as Ficus, Sapindus, Pisonia and Eugenia. Liane vegetation reaches 
here its most pronounced development, but species are much the same as in the chaparral forma- 
tion. This forest also abounds in ferns and aroids, such as species of Adiantum and Polypodium, 
Blechnum oceidentale, Anthurium Huegelii and A. cordifolium. Epiphytic orchids also form an 
element in this forest. 
St. John the trees of this forest formation are Tecoma leucoxylon, Andira inermis, 
Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, Morisonia americana, Mammea americana. In the shade of the trees 
BOERGESEN and PAuisEeN found a climbing fern Polypodium Swartzii, Polypodium phyllitidis, 
Blechnum occidentale, Polypodium tetragonum and the climbing aroid Philodendron giganteum. 
A tall grass Pharus glaber also exists in the shade of the forest trees together with an exotic 
Bryophyllum calycinum. 
The island of St. Croix possesses a forest in which tree species of such genera as Cicca, 
Eriodendron, Anacardium, Swietenia and Oreodoxa abound together with Hura crepitans and 
Andira inermis. Near the eastern end of the island is a true forest which EGGERS called by the 
name Eriodendron vegetation, which consists of such trees as Ceiba (Eriodendron) ?), Eugenia, 
Anona, Tetrazygia, Tecoma stans (an evergreen shrub), Bueida buceras, Mammea, Coccoloba bar- 
badensis, Trichilia, Hura, Artocarpus ineisa (introduced), Carica papaya, Cecropia peltata, together 
with ianes, as Cissampelos pareira, Cissus trifoliata, sieyoides, and epiphytic on trees 
Polypodium Swartzii, Epidendrum ciliare. Pendant from the branches of Eriodendron is an 
abundance of the Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides. 
2. Bahaman Region. 
This region comprises the islands and cays (keys) which form the Bahaman 
Archipelago, together with the southern end of the Floridan Peninsula. 
The islands and the mainland are mostly low with little topographic relief and 
many of the cays are scarcely above water at high tide. The region abounds 
in coral reefs and submerged banks upon which grow the characteristic algae 
of such rock deposits. The vegetation impresses the traveller by its low, 
monotonous growth. The color scheme, according to my observations, iS 
a dull, grayish green relieved occasionally by dashes of more brilliant color; 
but the glare of the sun on the eolian sand and rocks is little relieved by the 
ı) Howe, MarsHaut A.: Some Photographs of the silk-cotton Tree with Remarks on the 
early Records of its Occurrence in America; Torreya VI: 217—231. 
